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ATTILA, 



KING OF THE HUNS. 



BY THE 



HON. AND REV. WILLIAM HERBERT. 



LONDON : 
HENRY G. BOHN, YORK STREET, COVENT GARDEN. 



MDCCCXXXVIII. 

) 



w.£ 



*\®> 



G. NORMAN, PRINTER, MAIDEN LANE, COVENT GARDEN. 



TO 



HENRY HALLAM, ESQ. 



I am induced by the friendship which has subsisted 
between us near half a century, to inscribe these pages 
to you, who will fully appreciate any merit they may 
contain, and be disposed to look kindly on their defects. 
The historical treatise is the result of the researches I 
made to collect the materials for the poem, which was 
begun many years ago, and, having been some time 
completed, has remained in my desk receiving occasional 
corrections and additions. It is not without some natural 
anxiety, that I commit it under your auspices, as a 
favourite offspring, which has been sedulously educated, 
to the judgment of those, who will look upon it, not 
perhaps with greater critical severity than I have applied 
to it in the process of its correction, but without those 
feelings of paternal regard, which must have an undue 
tendency to reconcile me to its faults and deficiencies. 
I am well aware that my countrymen have lately con- 
ceived a great distaste for poetry, with which they seem 
to have been satiated; and perhaps I vainly flatter 



IV DEDICATION. 

myself, that the general historical truth of the poem 
may cause it to be looked upon in a light a little different 
from mere works of imagination ; and, although I may 
be disappointed in the hope that it contains passages 
calculated to direct the emotions of the mind to the 
true comforts of religion, at least it contains nothing 
that will not tend to promote the glory of God. The 
foundation of the pagan empire of Rome was the noble 
subject of the iEneid. That which I have chosen is 
the firm establishment of Christianity by the discom- 
fiture of the mighty attempt of Attila to found a new 
Antichristian dynasty upon the wreck of the temporal 
power of Rome, at the end of the term of 1200 years, 
to which its duration had been limited by the fore- 
bodings of the heathens. The grandeur of the subject 
is undeniable, and the deep consolations of Christianity 
give it an advantage over any heathen materials, how- 
ever I may have failed in treating it. 

Believe me ever, 

Your sincere friend, 

WILLIAM HERBERT, 

Spofforth, March 23, 1837. 



I 



ATTILA, 



THE TRIUMPH OF CHRISTIANITY. 



A POEM. 



PREFACE. 

The general course of this poem conforms with 
historical truth and fabulous traditions. The reappari- 
tion, however, on the field of Chalons of the deer, which 
led the Huns into Europe, is not founded on tradition, 
and Hacon is a fictitious person. The abduction of the 
wife of Alberon by the Romans is only thus far sup- 
ported by history, that the bride of some distinguished 
person, whose nuptials Clodion was celebrating, was 
carried off by them, and Alberon was perhaps not the 
bridegroom. The subsequent adventures of the lady 
are imaginary. The character of Cyprianus is invented, 
the anecdote attributed to him in Alexandria being 
however true concerning some person, whose name has 
not been preserved. The loves of Andages and Mycol- 
tha are invented, nothing being recorded concerning her, 
except her parentage and her marriage with Attila on 
the last night of his life. The termination of the story 
of Honoria by her forced marriage does not rest upon 
certain grounds, though I think the expressions of 
Priscus evidently point to some such impediment to her 
marriage with Attila having been devised, though it 
is barely possible that the objection that she had been 



Vlll PREFACE. 

given to another man might have reference to her 
previous incontinence. Her repentance is supplied by 
me, history being silent concerning the close of her life. 
The names of Ostorius and Lucilia are fictitious, but 
not the sacrifice. The history of Hilda is conformable 
with the accounts given in the Scandinavian and Teu- 
tonic legends, reconciling their differences. The name 
of Escam, the daughter and wife of Attila, mentioned 
in the history of Priscus, is applied to the legends con- 
cerning the younger Hilda, who was his daughter and 
wife. The mutiny of the heathens in Rome, quelled by 
Leo, was not an actual occurrence at the period stated, 
but such a mutiny broke out with an attempt to reesta- 
blish paganism a few years before on the advance of the 
great army of Radagais to Florence, and the same 
feelings must have been in activity on the approach of 
Attila. I hope it will be found that I have filled up the 
outline with nothing repugnant to truth and tradition ; 
but I am doubtful whether I have not shackled my 
imagination too much, by the desire to adhere to them 
as closely as practicable. I trust that nothing I have 
said concerning the Arians of the fifth century will be 
misapplied to the Unitarians, whose opinions I look upon 
as totally distinct from the ribaldry of the Thalia of Arius. 
I intend nothing polemic towards any person or sect of 
the present day. 



CONTENTS. 



Book First. 

Field of Chalons. — Apparition of the glamorous deer 

which first conducted the Huns into Europe. . . 1 

Book Second. 

Visit of Attila to the abode of Aliruna progenitress of the 
Huns, with her sisters, and the demons they had 
espoused in the wilderness. — Heathendom arrayed 
against Christianity. . . . . .21 

Book Third. 

Camp of Attila, and sacrifice of Christians to the Sword- 
God. — His march upon Trecas (Troyes) and return to 
Pannonia. ...... 47 

Book Fourth. 

Satan surveys the state of Europe. — Hermitage of Cyprian 
and his previous adventures. — Satan under his simi- 
litude tempts Honoria successfully, manifests himself 
to Aetius, and is rebuked by Leo. — Arian hierarchy. 78 

Book Fifth. 

Court of Attila ; banquet ; adventures of Honoria. . 104 

Book Sixth. 

Siege of Aquileia. — Adventures of Alberon king of 

Cameracum, and his captive queen. . . . 127 

Book Seventh. 

Progress of the Italian war foreshewn to the sorceress 
Hilda, the sister and repudiated queen of Attila, on 
the surface of a subterranean lake in Carnia. . 158 

b 



X CONTENTS. 

Book Eighth. 

Villa of A'etius ; his treacherous inactivity. . 178 

Book Ninth. 

Valentinian in Rome. — Mutiny of the pagan party in 
Rome quelled by Leo. — Interview between Leo and 
Honoria penitent. . . . . .191 

Book Tenth. 

Attila prepares to advance against Rome. — Embassy from 
Valentinian. — Vision of St. Paul and St. Peter. — Attila 
quails before them, and is abandoned by the evil spi- 
rits. — Pestilence amongst the Huns. — Return of Leo 
and thanksgivings at Rome. . . . .210 

Book Eleventh. 

Retreat of Attila to the huge circles of Hunniwar. — Ad- 
ventures of Mycoltha. — Treason of Hilda, and failure 
of the Burgundian conspirators. — Interview between 
Satan and Ariel the spirit of Rome. . . . 226 

Book Twelfth. 

Compulsory nuptials of the Christian Mycoltha with 
Attila. — Death and obsequies of Attila and Hilda, 
and dissipation of the Antichristian confederacy. . 251 



ATTILA. 



BOOK FIRST. 

Him terrible I sing, the scourge of heaven, 

Who, braving the Messiah, with thy sword, 

Dread Ariman,* outpour'd his Scythian flood, 

What time the empire of Quirinus old 

Quaked from the base ; for even then its years 5 

Were ended, and the breathless nations look'd 

For who upon the seven eternal hills 

Should sit enthroned with might ; and, in God's house 

Blaspheming the Most High, with impious pomp 

Display himself as God. Night's shadow sank 10 

On Catalaunum,f and the dreary waste 

Red with the blood of thousands, that confused 

Lay on its bosom weltering. The sound 

Of conflict was o'erpast, the shock of all 

Whom Earth could send from her remotest bounds, 15 

Heathen or faithful ; from thy hundred mouths 

That feed the Caspian with Riphean snows, 

Huge Volga ! from famed Hypanis, that once 

Cradled the Hun ; from all the countless realms 

Between Imaus and that utmost strand, 20 

* Ares, or Areimanios, in Latin Mars, the war-god. t Chalons. 

B 



"2 ATTILA. 

Where columns of Herculean rock confront 

The blown Atlantic ; Roman, Goth, and Hun, 

And Scythian strength of chivalry, that tread 

The cold Codanian* shore, or what far lands 

Inhospitable drink Cimmerian floods, 25 

Francs, Saxons, Suevic and Sarmatian chiefs, 

And who from green Armorica or Spain 

Flock'd to the work of death. Arduous it were 

To scan the tribes, different of faith and mien, 

Upon the waste of Catalaunum heap'd 30 

In undistinguish'd wreck. Within his camp 

Stood Attila unbroken, undismay'd 

By that disastrous hour, his pagan host 

Beneath unnumber'd banners mustering, 

Various and many-tongued ; in this agreed, 35 

Firm trust on him their leader, him revered 

E'en as a God; with courage desperate, 

That little heeded life, and by reverse 

Unshaken. O'er that field, where battle's din 

Had seem'd a voice from Erebus, now reign'd 40 

Stern silence ; save where moans of agony 

Came on the night-breeze, or the howl of wolves 

From Ardenne gathering to their loathsome feast 

Made the deep stillness horrible. Around 

Flamed beacons, lighted by the wary Francs, 45 

Whom Meroveus of the flowing hair 

Marshall'd against the invader. On the south, 

Flank'd by victorious Goths, the middle post 

Held princely Sangiban, of dubious faith, 

With his brave Alans. Sorely had they rued 50 

* The Coclani dwelt by the Baltic. There is no trace of the existence 
of the name Dane there before the reign of Attila. 



book i. ;3 

Their leader's taint, exposed that fatal day 

In the red front of conflict. On the left. 

Camping aloof, and 'scaped from that fierce heat, 

Wherewith Gepidian Arderic had press'd 

His legions, parted from the central host, 55 

Aetius watch'd the slippery tide of war, 

Lord of Rome's strength. He from thy tottering walls, 

Aurelia,* dogg'd the Hun, what time thy towers 

Shook crumbling to the stroke of engines huge, 

And, in the breach, already swarm'd the foe, 60 

And steel met steel, and clashing bucklers broke, 

And matrons shriek'd : while Anianus stood 

High on the battlement, in flowing robes 

Pontifical, and stretch'd his arms to heaven ; 

When, as he pray'd, a dim and distant cloud 65 

Obscured the pale horizon ; on it roll'd 

Clothing with dust the desolated plain. 

" The aid of God !" the Christian pontiff cried; 

" The aid of God !" from every tremulous tongue 

Rang to the citadel ; and the misty shroud, 70 

Thrown backward by the gusty breeze, display'd 

Rome's eagles, with thy bright auxiliar host, 

Theodoric, and all the banded South. 

From that portentous hour the sullen Hun, 

Sweeping the realms of France, roll'd back the tide 75 

Of his fell myriads ; not in rout, or fear, 

But wary, unappall'd, so to o'erthrow 

The rash pursuer ; till on Chalons' plain 

His vaunt was staid. Unscathed Rome's army stands; 

But where art thou, illustrious Goth, supreme 80 

From beautiful Tolosa, that beholds 

* Aurelia*, Orleans. 
B 2 



ATTILA. 



Pine-clad Cebennas and the snowy ridge 

Of Pyrenean hills, to the Roman walls 

Of Arelas, and Rhone's impetuous wave ! 

Baptized Theodoric ! whos3 conquering* sire 85 

Clombe the Tarpeian, but with alter'd mien 

Bow'd humbly in Jehovah's shrine. Transfix'd 

By heathen shafts, and trampled by the hoofs 

Of thy victorious cavalry, thou liest 

Upon that field of glory ; but the Hun 90 

Treads not upon thy corse, or girds thy spoil. 

Ranged in fierce order, where the loftier ground 

Swells gently from the plain, the Gothic power 

Frowns o'er the silent champaign ; but anon 

Strange sounds of barbarous music, woful strains, 95 

And funeral wail is heard ; like thatf sent up 

From Hadadrimmon in Megiddo's vale 

For good Josiah dead. That awful dirge 

Sends forth the grief of thousands, a whole host 

Hymning their monarch slain. King of the West, 100 

It cannot rouse thee from thy gorgeous bier ! 

Nerveless is now that arm which shew'd thy Goths 

The path to glory ; and the eye, that oft 

Relumed their fainting ardour, dark and seal'd 

By the long slumber. Thou art as the dust, 105 

Which thy foot trampled, when Tolosa's dames 

Saw thee go forth in bravery to war; 

Of all thy sire possess'd, or thy sword won, 

Thou dost inherit nothing, but the urn 

Where the worm nestles, and the voice of fame 110 

Which falls unheeded on the ear of death. 

The wild lament was hush'd ; and then a shout, 

< . — 

* Alaric the Great. t See Zechariah xii. 11. 



BOOK I. 5 

As of applauding millions, rent the sky ; 

And thousand torches from their flaming locks 

Cast forth a lurid glare ; a clang of arms 115 

With loud acclaim announces to the host 

The heir of all his glory and estate, 

Young Torismond, upon his buckler raised, 

Amidst the bristling ranks of Gothic steel. 

Thro' Arduenna's woods the echo rang, 120 

And blood-stain'd Matrona's polluted wave 

Ran trembling to the Seine; awhile the blaze 

Stream'd o'er the field of death ; then all was still, 

Horror and utter darkness : through the night 

Deep silence brooded o'er the Gothic camp. 1*25 

But not to Attila came soothing rest, 

Not to the throng of pagan combatants, 

That wearied, faint, amazed by that day's rout, 

Presaged worse ruin, desperate overthrow. 

Breathing revenge, he thro' the midmost ranks 130 

Imperious rode; his outstretch'd arm raised high 

The ponderous falchion, upon Scythia's plain 

Cast by the fulminating God of war, 

Itself divine ; as shoots the meteor-stone 

With hissing speed along its fiery path 135 

Precipitate thro' mid air, by mortals deem'd 

Flung from the moon's Vulcanian hills. So fell 

The accursed brand, there since by wondering hinds 

Found on the verdant mead, distain'd with blood 

Of a pure heifer, midst unnumber'd herds 140 

The first, self-offer'd, victim. To that steel 

Bow'd Hun and Tartar, not by temples graced, 

Altar or secret shrine, or costly dome 

Fretted with proud barbaric ornament, 



6 ATILLA. 

But in the barren sod firm-fixt and stark, 145 

An horrid Deity ; the type of him 

Whose might unseen, amid the crash of arms, 

Wields the blind chance of conquest, flight, and death. 

By Tanais oft, or Rha's* majestic flood, 

To that grim idol rose the solemn chaunt 150 

Of nightly adoration, while the clang 

Of armed legions in their bloody rites 

Rang e'en to Caucasus. Now held aloft 

Terribly portentous, and to him their prince 

The badge of heaven-born power, the lurid blade 155 

Gleam'd o'er the Painim rout. Silent the bands 

Adore it ; then thus spoke the king of kings. 

" Drunken, but not with wine, our foemen shout 
" Fate-stricken in their camp. Not Caesar's arm, 
" Not Meroveus, or the Gothic tide 160 

44 Push'd back our squadrons, but almighty Powers, 
44 Who darkly work their end. Empire is mine 
" Predestined, and the march of fate is sure. 
" Low lies the great Theodoric, while-ere 
" Thy vaunt, Tolosa ! let the Christian dogs 165 

" Bay near us, and the spurious Franc afar 
" Bid cressets blaze ! let Rome's sly chieftain prowl 
44 Round our defences ! In his eyrie pent 
44 The Hunnish vulture undismay'd and fresh 
44 Plumes even now the wing, that shall o'ersail 170 

44 The towers of Constantine, and those seven hills 
44 Where Rome sits shrined in glory; for this sword 
44 E'en on the Capitol erect shall stand 
44 Sprinkled with sacrifice, and Christian gore 

* The ancient name of the Volpfu. 



BOOK I. 



" Shall froth upon the hilt. Hear, haughty queen, 175 

" The curse of Attila ! and ye, loud mouths 

" Of martial symphony, defiance breathe, 

" Pouring the strain, that cheer'd to victory 

" Stout Rhuas,* and Balamber's iron heart, 

" And those of older attribute, who made 180 

" Far Sericana dread the Tanjoo's arm ! 

" For not in vain (I deem) our fathers burst 

" Forth from their oozy lair ; the glamorous deer 

" Over Mseotis and the swampy brake 

" Not without fate conducted them." He spoke, 185 

And, with that word, an universal blast 

From thousand instruments of warlike breath 

Gave note of stern defiance, and rang forth 

Of stirring music a sonorous peal 

From gong and cymbal, many a clashing sword 190 

Resounding to the buckler's iron orb; 

And, midst that clang, the multitudinous shout 

Of all those uncouth nations, that, erewhile 

Downcast and mute, by those bold words aroused 

Breathed new confliction, and by hate assured 195 

Trampled e'en now, beneath the hoofs of war, 

Byzantium and the stately halls of Rome. 

The brazen-tongued triumphal symphony 
Smote the dark heaven ; all night that ceaseless din 
Bray'd thro' the Hunnish camp, with confident strain 200 
Braving the foe. Nor of secure defence 
Lack'd what rude means might furnish, chariots, wains, 
And strength enormous of scythe-armed cars 



* King Rhuas was uncle to Attila ; Balamber commanded when they 
entered Europe. 



b ATTILA. 

Closing the warlike theatre, and around 

With intermingling wheels and horrent flanks 205 

Making firm fence, to all that Gothic horse 

Impenetrable, tho' their necks be clothed 

In thunder, and their course like rushing winds. 

Within, dread catapults and engines strange ; 

Strong front of opposition, not untried, 210 

Which, as a rock, dash'd back the o'erwhelming wave 

Of those impetuous squadrons, that yestreen 

Bore terror on their charge and fiery speed ; 

But, midst the serried rank of scythed cars, 

Horseman and horse in bloody overthrow 215 

Plunged headlong, and the tide of battle turn'd ; 

While in mid air, a sound articulate 

Louder than human (like that fatal voice 

Which once in Athens broke the awful pause 

Between heaven's angry bolts, and made each hair 220 

Stand bristling on the heads of those who heard, 

Calling to Hades the incestuous king* 

Branded by fate) with strange heart-withering dread 

Appall'd each host ; and some averr'd a face 

Look'd through the gloomy curtain of the dusk, 225 

Upon that bloody field, from heaven's high cope 

So full of terror, that the stoutest hearts 

Shrank with dismay, and the tumultuous din 

With all war's thousands became still as death. 

Thus the lorn habitants of that famed town 230 

Fabled in Araby, which heard her doom 

Spoken at midnight, when her sons were changed 

All in the twinkling of an eye to stone. 

* CEdipus ; see Soph. (Ed. Col. 



book i. y 

Sullen drew back the assailant, while the twang 

Of Hunnish bows behind that muniment 235 

Shot arrowy sleet. Within, a gorgeous pile 

( Spoils heap'd on spoils, all that of ravaged wealth 

France yielded) shew'd how pagan hearts would meet 

Fate's worse alternative. Exalted high 

Upon that pyramid, with carpets strewn 240 

As for a feast, sat all the blooming flower 

Of Attila's rich harem ; wives and slaves, 

Children and concubines, from Tyrian silk 

Breathing perfume Around them incense raised 

Its precious odours, and bright standards gleam'd, 245 

Trophy of days victorious ; in the midst 

The imperial throne. Below, a trusty band, 

Stern ministers of death, with ears intent 

Awaited but the word, to wrap in flame 

That holocaust of loveliness, fair shapes, 250 

Which never insult of invading foe 

Living shall spoil. Each, in his left a torch, 

Stood girt for sacrifice, with watchful eye, 

Guarding the pyre. All night the tapers glared 

Funereal, and the wail of women rose. 255 

Slow struggling thro' the mist, that reek'd to heaven, 
Day dawn'd on Chalons' plain. Faintly it shew'd 
Indistinct horror, and the ghastly form 
Of havoc lingering o'er its bloody work. 
O for the tongue that told, how once the fiend 260 

Over immortal Athens from his wing 
Scatter'd disease and death ! and, worse than death, 
The living curse of sunder'd charities, 
Whereby the fount of feeling and love's pulse 
Was staid within thro' dread, and, when most lack'd, 2(35 



10 ATTILA. 

The hospitable mansion sternly closed 

Against a parent's prayer, while corses foul 

On the barr'd threshold's edge lay uninhumed, 

Exhaling plague ! O for the voice of him, 

Who drew the curtain of apocalypse, 270 

To man declaring things for man too high, 

That I may speak the horrors, which broke slow 

Upon the sight at dawn ! The ample field, 

Which, but short hours before, was redolent 

With herbs and healthful odours, now uptorn '275 

By thousand hoofs, batter'd beneath the strength 

Of wheels and horse and man, a barren mass 

Of dark confusion seem'd ; a trampled waste 

Without the blush of verdure, but with gore 

Distain'd, and steep'd in the cold dews of death. 280 

Thick strewn, and countless, as those winged tribes, 

Which clamoring blacken all the grassy mead 

In sickly autumn, when the wither'd leaves 

Drift on the moaning gale, lay swords and pikes, 

Bucklers, and broken cuirasses, and casques, 285 

Shower'd by the pelting battle, when it rush'd 

With such hoarse noise, as doth the foaming surge 

Upon some rocky ledge, where ^Eolus 

Bids foul winds blow. But not of arms alone 

Rent fragments, and the broken orbs of shields 290 

Emboss'd with gold, and gorgeous housings, lay 

Cumbering that fearful waste. The mind shrinks back 

From the thick-scatter'd carnage, the dread heaps 

That late were living energy and youth, 

Hope emulous, and lofty daring ; strength, 295 

Which, raised again from that corrupting sod, 

Thro' Ardenne's desert unto utmost Rhine 



BOOK I. 11 

Might have spread culture ; thousands, whose blythe voice 

Might yet have caroll'd to the breath of morn, 

Or joy'd the banquet, or with gifted hand 300 

Waked the ecstatic lyre, adorning still 

With rich diversity of active powers 

Cottage or palace, the marmorean hall's 

Proud masonry, with Roman wealth o'erlaid, 

Or of Sarmatian hut the pastoral hearth, 305 

Abode of love, where fond remembrance now 

Looks sadly over hills and native dales 

For forms beloved in vain, which far away, 

Spurn'd by the grazed ox, shall heap the sod 

Of Chalons' glebe with undistinguish'd clay. 310 

Alas ! if erst on that unhallow'd eve 
When Ramah quaked with dread, the deep lament 
Of Rachel * moaning for her babes appall'd 
Utmost Judaea^ and the holy banks 

Of Jordan unto Syria's frontier bounds, 3 1 5 

What ear, save Thine to whom all plaints arise, 
Might have abided the commingling wail 
Of matrons widow'd, and of maids that day 
Bereft of bridal hopes ! like those lorn men 
Hard by the rock of Rimmon,f when the Lord 320 

Smote Benjamin in all his fenced towns, 
Virgin, and wife, and infant with the sword 



* Matth. ii. 18. Jerem. xxxi. 15. 

t When the children of Benjamin were destroyed in Gibcah, 700 men 
escaped unto the rock of Rimmon, (Judges xx. 47.) and the men of 
Israel had sworn not to give them their daughters in marriage ; but 
they seized on 400 maidens at Jabesh-gilcad, and completed the number 
of their wives by taking the. virgins that were dancing near the vine- 
yards at the feast in Shiloh. c. xxi. v. 21. 



12 ATILLA. 

Utterly destroying ; and one oath restrain'd 

Each willing fair in Israel ; yet brides 

For them still bloom'd in Gilead, and, what time 325 

The vintage glow'd, in Shiloh danced with song 

Ripe for connubial joys. But whence for these 

Shall ravaged Europe light the nuptial torch, 

Whose hopes have wither'd as the herbs, that bloom'd 

Odorous yestermorn on Chalons' plain ! 330 

There foes on foes, friends lay with icy cheek 

Pressing their maim'd companions. On that field 

The eye might trace all war's vicissitudes 

Impress'd in fatal characters ; the rush 

Headlong of flight, and thundering swift pursuit, 335 

Rescue and rally, and the struggling front 

Of hard contention. Strewn on every side 

Lay dead and dying, like the scatter'd seed 

Cast by the husbandman, with other thought 

Of unstain'd harvest ; chariots overthrown, 340 

Shields cast behind, and wheels, and sever'd limbs, 

Rider and steed, and all the merciless shower 

Of arrows barb'd, strong shafts, and feather'd darts 

Wing'd with dismay. As when of Alpine snows 

The secret fount is open'd, and dread sprites, 345 

That dwell in those chrystalline solitudes, 

Have loosed the avalanche, whose deep-thundering moan, 

Predicting ruin, on his couch death-doom'd 

The peasant hears ; waters on waters rush 

Uptearing all impediment ; woods, rocks, 350 

Ice rifted from the deep ccerulean glens, 

Herds striving with the stream, and bleating flocks, 

The dwellers of the dale, with all of life 

That made the cottage blithesome ; but erelong 



BOOK I. 13 

The floods o'erpass; the ravaged valley lies 355 

Tranquil and mute in ruin. So confused 

In awful stillness lay the battle's wreck. 

Here heaps of slain, as by an eddy cast, 

And hands, which, stiff, still clench'd the ruddy steel, 

Shew'd rallied strength and life sold dearly. There 360 

Equal and mingled havoc, where the tide 

Doubtful had paused, whether to ebb or flow. 

Some prone were cast, some headlong, some supine ; 

Others yet strove with death. The sallow cheek 

Of the slain Avar press'd the mangled limbs 365 

Of yellow-hair'd Sicambrian, whose blue eyes 

Still swum in agony ; Gelonic steed 

Lay panting on the cicatrized form 

Of his grim lord, whose painted brow convulsed 

Seem'd a ferocious mockery. There, mix'd 370 

The Getic archer with the savage Hun, 

And Dacian lancers lay, and sturdy Goths 

Pierced by Sarmatian pike. There, once his boast, 

The Sueve's long-flowing hair with gore besprent, 

And Alans stout, in Roman tunic clad. 375 

Some of apparel stripp'd by coward bands, 

That, vulture-like, upon the skirts of war 

Ever hang merciless ; their naked forms 

In death yet beauteous, tho' the eburnean limbs 

Blood had defiled. There some, whom thirst all night 380 

Had parch'd, too feeble from that fellowship 

To drag their fever'd heads, aroused at dawn 

From fearful dreaming to new hope and life, 

Die rifled by the hands, whose help they crave. 

Others lie maim'd and torn, too strong to die, 385 

Imploring death. O for some friendly aid 



14 ATTILA. 

To staunch their burning wounds, and cool the lip 

Refresh'd with water from an unstain'd spring ! 

But that foul troop of plunderers, unrestrain'd, 

Ply their abhorred trade, of groan or prayer 390 

Heedless, destroying whom war's wrath had spared. 

Some, phrenzied, crawl unto the brook, which late 

Pellucid rolPd, now choked with slain, and swelPd 

By the heart's blood of thousands ; gore they quaff 

For water, to allay the fatal thirst 395 

Which only death may quench. And this, great God ! 

This is the field of glory and of joy 

To man, the noblest of created forms, 

In thy pure image moulded ! this the meed 

For which exalted natures toil and strive, 400 

Placed in such high pre-eminence, to be 

Thine own similitude, in glory next 

Thine incorporeal ministers ! Long while 

Upon that loathly scene gazed Attila, 

Touch'd by no thought of sufferings. His eye 405 

Thro' the dull twilight mark'd the distant rear 

Of the retreating Goths. Amazed he views 

Their camp deserted, and the dying glare 

Of their spent watchfires. On the farthest left 

The Roman station with huge palisades 410 

Shew'd double fence, against assault prepared. 

Him musing, valiant Alberon address'cl. 
Alberon,* first-born of France, but from his throne 
Exiled by Rome. He in the Hunnish camp 
Breathed fratricidal vengeance, stung by hate 415 

Of him,f who, girt with foreign livery, wore 

* King of Cameracum (Cambray), son and rightful heir of Clodion. 
t Mcroveus. 



BOOK I. 15 

Lutetia's crown : nor less another thought 

Goaded him, direr than fraternal strife ; 

How, at the nuptial banquet, ere his lips 

Had cull'd love's promise, on the easy prey 420 

A'etius sudden with his legions fell,* 

And foemen reap'd his rights. Then flash'd the glaive 

O'er goblets crown'd by mirth ; and, midst her train 

Of beauteous handmaids by like wrong despoil'd, 

Force tore his virgin queen from the first blush 425 

Of bridal joys. Amid the clash of swords 

He saw her streaming locks, the bursting sob 

Of her bared bosom, to the soldier's gaze 

Unveil'd, and that chaste form, which was to him 

All that earth held of bliss, dragg'd forth to mourn 430 

Servile dishonour, and adorn with tears 

Rome's triumph. Still he fought, as to whom death 

Were victory ; but the merciless tide of war 

Came booming in between him and his hopes. 

He sank upon the ashes of his camp, 435 

Deserted, faint ; as, from the lonely wreck, 

Who midst the crash of waters sees in vain 

The hand he lov'd uplifted, and anon 

Hears but the sullen and remorseless wave 

Roar o'er the gulph that swallow'd it. E'er since 440 

His bosom glow'd implacable with hate 

Of Rome and her great captain. To his mind 

One thought was present ; still before his eyes 

Stood that dear vision, spotless, undefiled, 

* Majorian, serving under Aetius, carried oft* from the camp of Clo- 
dion the bride of some person of high rank at the celebration of the 
nuptials. See Sidon. Apoll. I have supposed her to have boon the bride 
of Alberon. 



16 ATTILA. 

Breathing delight ; the sacrilege of force 445 

Invading the pure temple of his joys 
With more than hellish insult ; still in war 
That image fired him. Mid the hostile ranks 
With hands upraised in vain, that injured form 
Seem'd to implore him, and her last wild shriek 450 
Came o'er his soul. Thus now, with ardent mind 
Forejoying vengeance, he gave passion voice. 

" Attila, they fly ! The Gothic force e'en now 
" In yon blue distance fades ! Immortal Powers, 
" At length ye hear my vows, vows daily pour'd 455 
" Amidst the bread of bitterness ! The Gods 
" Give curst Aetius to our vengeful arms, 
" Or, if he fly too, eagle-wing'd pursuit 
" Shall ring upon his footsteps ; the gaunt dogs 
" Of Hesus shall be flesh'd with victory, 460 

" And thou, gore-sprinkled maid of Scythia, 
" Dread Taranis,* shalt see thine altars fume 
" With Roman blood. Lead on, to glory lead 
" Thy thousands, mightiest and first of men !" 

He ceased; but Attila withheld reply, 465 

Stretching his sight athwart morn's misty shroud 
To the hostile hills, so haply to descry 
Ambush or fraud ; when close before him pass'd, 
Bounding with nimble step, a beauteous doe, 
White, as the snowy wreaths on Msenalus 470 

Untrodden by the hunter. Such a form, 
Perfect in symmetry, might well have woo'd 

* The prevailing notion that Taranis was a male Deity is certainly 
erroneous. The line Et Taranis Scythicae non mitior ara Dianse in 
Lucan implies that Taranis was the Tauric Diana ; the construction 
otherwise given to the line is inconsistent with Latinity. 



BOOK I. 17 

Chaste Dian from her incense-breathing shrine 
To the lone quest of forests, or allured 
Unshorn Adonis from the fragrant kiss 475 

Of his love-lighted queen. It seem'd not born, 
Like the rude dwellers of the ferny brake, 
To crop the dewy lawn ; rather to lie 
In gentle idling by the mossy grot 

Of some aerial nymph, there fed with cates 480 

Ambrosial, or disport on Flora's lap 
Light as the breath of Zephyr. Strange it seem'd 
A thing so meek by nature, form'd to shun 
Man's walk, and chief such walks, where strife had loosed 
The dogs of carnage, over heaps of slain 485 

Should bound unscared, brushing the bloody dew 
With unstain'd hoofs. Awe-struck, the Hunnish lords 
Deem'd it a wondrous omen ; to the Franc 
It seem'd the wraith of his long-ravish'd queen 
Bodeful to Rome ; a form of loveliness 490 

Amid war's agony. With other mind 
Stern Attila regarded it, as nigh 
It stopp'd, and fearless on the Hunnish king 
Turn'd its full orbs, as if for him alone 
Its eyes had vision. An unconscious flush 495 

Glow'd on his tawny skin. His sight seem'd fix'd, 
Yet were his thoughts far off, beside the flood 
Of Cuban, and that demon-guarded marsh, 
Where dwelt his rude forefathers They, confined 
By the dark belt of the Maeotian pool, 500 

A dreary waste impervious, as they saw 
Each sun successive in its waters merge, 
Deem'd it earth's utmost girdle, nor divined 
Other fair realms, and the huge continent 

c 



18 ATTILA. 

Far stretching to the blue Atlantic wave 505 

Beyond the western ray. Till such a form, 

Nimblest of forest deer, whether in truth 

Child of the glen, or* incorporeal shape 

Sent by malignant spirits, to draw forth 

A plague on Europe, thro' untrodden swamps 510 

Toled the swart leaders of the toilsome chase 

To the open plain. Nursed in that dismal lair, 

Amazed they stand upon the margin green 

Of clear Borysthenes, who winds his flood 

Amongst ten thousand herds; thence, like a blast 515 

From ice-bound Taurus, or Riphaean dens, 

By Eurus loosed, them from their barren haunts 

Fierce Ares pour'd, wasting the fruitful prime 

Of Europe city-crown'd, from Danau's bank 

To Rhene's far water, and your sunny streams, 520 

Liger and Matrona, that lave the Gaul. 

Now, tranced in thought profound, their monarch view'd 

That shape, of glory ominous, ere then 

Oft to his fancy present, that first led 

His fathers from their wilds, to overthrow 525 

The Alipzures in battle, and heap high 

The shrine of Victory! with captives slain, 

First fruits of war. Unutterable things 

Press'd on his mind resistless ; Chalons' field, 

With all its contiguity of death 530 

In thousand hideous shapes, unto his eye 

Seem'd but the course, o'er which his charger's hoof 

Must speed unto the goal. His ardent soul 



Bishop Jornandes was of the latter opinion, 
t See Jornandes. 



BOOK I. 19 

Pictured the distant wilderness, abode 
Of his first ancestors, of woman fair 535 

Engender'd by foul elves, that haunt unseen 
Forest and fell, by human kind abhorr'd ; 
And, as he mark'd with vision fancy-rapt 
Their wizard messenger, vague thoughts arose, 
That, amid glens sequester'd, of his race 540 

The original mother, with immortal bloom 
By that abominable union clothed, 
Might still o'er nature's ever-during laws 
Hold mastery, and triumph over death. 
Nor of such meeting had his nightly dreams 545 

Never forewarn'd him. Thoughtfully he look'd, 
Nor of his chiefs mark'd word or motion, till 
An arrow from the bow of Hacon flew 
Right to the mark. Sea-rover bold and free, 
When booty lured him, in the chase, or fight, 550 

His arm was never staid. The dart sprang back 
Harmless and foil'd, as from a hollow shape 
Of iron or shrill brass, which artful hands 
Have moulded to the life. As it recoil'd, 
Unearthly was the sound ; the elfish tone , 555 

Rang sweetly tremulous, as breezy harp 
Of iEolus, or those Memnonian chords, 
That quiver'd to the dawning touch of day 
Harmonious. From the rocks, where Maelstrom roars, 
Came Hacon, never more that bow to draw 560 

In forest, or in field. The ruthless king 
Smote him ; " So perish all, who cross our fates !" 
Wrathful he cried. With strange irradiance lit 
His eyes shot fierce command ; their kindling gleam 
Seem'd of no mortal fire, and his regard 565 

c a 



20 ATTILA. 

Was fixt upon the boundless realms above, 

As if the aspirations of his soul, 

Inward and strong, were bursting thro' the clay 

That shackled its bright essence ; and the world 

With every rich variety and pomp 570 

Of nature or of art, mountains and dales, 

And vallies teeming wealth, and billowy seas 

Studded with sails, beneath his kingly glance 

Lay prostrate. Badge of power, the baleful sword 

Shone in his hand uplifted, as he spoke 575 

Words fitting his proud thoughts. " Beings unknown, 

" From whom we sprang, with no degenerate pride 

" I greet your messenger ! One boon alone 

" Vouchsafe me ! Power I ask not, on these brows 

" By fate decreed to bloom ; nor strength of limb, 580 

" Which I inherit ; nor long thread of life 

" In me spell-guarded by high destinies ; 

" Nor long predicted empire. Only I crave 

" In charm'd Engaddi to confront your forms, 

" Where I was nursed* by spirits, and behold 585 

" Things in the womb of time, and all that space 

" Envelopes in its ample bosom, far 

" Beyond the ken of man." At those bold words 

The snow-white forester, that all the while 

With heedless nostril snuff'd the gory sod, 590 

Fix'd him with startled eye ; then, bounding swift, 

Fled northward, where unmeasured waste of woods, 

Dark Arduenna, stretch'd beyond the bank 

Of Meuse and Axona's deep-gurgling stream. 



* Attila styled himself nourish'd in Engaddi, " a place of palms or 
vines in the wilderness," near Zoar. See the prophecy of the man- 
child, Revelations xii. 



ATTILA. 



BOOK SECOND. 



Quick fled the wizard deer; with powerful hand 

The king of nations curb'd his snow-white steed, 

Impetuous Grana ; if fame tells aright, 

Of other breed than spurn with foot untamed 

Dnieper's luxuriant glebe ; where'er he trod, 5 

The blasted earth with sulphurous vapour reek'd ; 

Nor flower, nor herbage clothed the barren print 

Of that fell hoof. Proudly the monarch cast 

To Arderic his signet, and forbade 

Egression from the camp; then spurr'd the flanks 10 

Of that terrific charger. He upright 

Rear'd furious, shaking from his lip the foam, 

And started on his gallop ; the torn sod 

Flies shiver'd into air, and sparks and flame 

Play round his heel. Beneath his stroke the plain, 15 

Echoing each footstep, quakes ; till, far and faint, 

The thunder of his course in distance dies. 

Leagues fled behind them ; Attila still kept 
The chase in view, where wide behind his camp 
Stretch'd dreary Arduenna. By a rock 20 

Stupendous, that o'erbrow'd the pathless brake 
In that unmeasured solitude, the deer 



22 ATTILA. 

Vanished, ingulph'd in shade. The baffled Hun 

Uncertain paused; the while his fiery horse 

Ungovernable paw'd the desert turf, 25 

Neighing, and snufF'd the air, and chafed, as if 

Voices man knew not, sights unseen and strange, 

To him were manifest. Anon from far 

The thunderous gallop of ten thousand hoofs 

And other neighings answer'd, till the rush 30 

Of countless legions, heard, but undescried, 

Came sweeping by. The cheerly morning air 

Turn'd loathsome, like a blast from charnel vaults, 

And darkness grew around, as if the sun. 

Shorn of resplendent shafts, had veil'd his brow 35 

In rayless night. With foaming jaws, eyes fix'd, 

Neck sthTen'd and out-stretch'd, like moulded brass 

That yields not to the bit, the Hunnish steed, 

Straining each sinew, over rock and scaur 

Tears headlong, to outstrip that viewless herd, 40 

Nor hears his rider's voice, nor heeds the rein, 

As if incensed by rivalry of forms 

That nature own'd not ; now behind them, now 

Amidst the deafening multitude involved, 

Now striving with the first, while strong and loud 45 

The labouring flanks of that unearthly crew 

Panted behind. At length dead halt he made, 

As who had won the goal. How far, how long, 

And whither borne by that ungovern'd course, 

The monarch knew not; all his senses reel'd 50 

In dizziness amazed. Around him rose 

Nature's magnificence ; the wildest shapes 

Of wood, and rock, and torrent waters ; caves 

Darker than night, and thick groves, mantling round 



BOOK II. 23 

A tranquil amphitheatre, fenced off 55 

From the world's cares by those huge battlements. 

Beneath umbrageous trees, whose giant arms 

Might have o'ershaded the original source 

Of earth's primeval streams, the chrystal flood 

Slept in that stately harbour, fringed with flowers 60 

Innumerable, from which the wanton air 

Drew mingled odours, richer than the breeze 

From blest Arabia, or that fragrant pyre 

On which the phoenix dies. Harmonious notes 

Came floating on the water, with a fall 65 

So ravishing, it seem'd the ecstatic close 

Of some seraphic chorus ; and anon 

Their warblings kindled into amorous plaints, 

Voluptuous strains of rapture-breathing hope 

From strings invisible, and airy harps, 70 

Which might have stirr'd with their blithe minstrelsy 

A heart of adamant. Around, the earth 

Smiled gaily, carpeted with bloom : nor lack'd 

Amid that witchery of sound and sight, 

Lovelier than all, fair shapes and feminine, 75 

Fairer than womankind, unzoned, and ripe 

With every faultless charm. The highest seat 

Held one, amid that train surpassing bright ; 

Their queen, if diadem adorning locks 

That need no gems to grace them, princely port, 80 

And stature raised above her comrades, speak 

Royal preeminence, o'er forms that seem 

Each perfect. Eloquent of bliss, her eyes 

Thro' their long lashes beam'd with liquid light, 

And dark as ebony the ringlets fell 85 

Upon her neck and brow. Her fragrant lips 



24 ATTILA. 

Like coral shew'd, on which the humid breath 

Linger'd, as loth to quit that perfumed seat 

Of balmy life. O'er all her person glow'd 

Imperishable charms and stately grace. 90 

Near her sat one, past manhood's burning prime, 

Who seem'd her father. Years had left some trace 

Of cares upon his brow, not unadorn'd 

With vigour and the venerable print 

Of inborn worth. And other forms were nigh, 95 

Mirthsome, and blooming with male strength of limb, 

Fit mates for those rare damsels. She their queen, 

Upon a couch of beryl, rich with gems, 

Hung on that elder's neck, as if her eyes 

Drank life from his ; while thro' her beauteous court 100 

Song and sweet interchange of joyous speech 

Kindled around. Sudden the love-fraught-smile 

Forsook her startled cheek, scared by the neigh 

Of Attila's pale war-horse. Gracefully 

She courteous half uprose, her ivory arm 105 

Extending, to designate the high seat 

For him reserved. Then thus, while glamorous charms 

Ineffable play'd round her roseate lips, 

Outbreathing joy. " Hail, glorious child of power, 

" That bear'st the passport to this vale of bliss, 110 

" That spell-born falchion ! Mortal, thou behold'st 

" Famed *Aliorune, unrivall'd upon earth 

" For beauty, fragile once and vain, now deck'd 

* The Huns were said by Bishop Jornandes, who lived in the century 
following the reign of Attila, to have sprung from certain women called 
Aliruna; or Aliorunae, who having been expelled by Filimer king of the 
Goths on account of their sorceries, companied with evil spirits in the 
wilderness. 



BOOK II. 25 

" With incorruptible unfading youth ; 

" And these my deathless sisters, of thy race 115 

" First source and origin, outcast by force 

" From this our native Europe, bann'd by men 

" For lore to them denied, in the obscure waste 

" That girds Cimmerium's plain, thro' Runic charms, 

" Gift of our Scanian ancestors, we found 120 

" Immortal spousals, amid spirits dread 

" That make earth quake. Winters have shower'd their snow 

" Successive o'er the long-forgotten grave 

" Of olden Filimer, whose ruthless hate 

" Exiled us, from the dwellings of mankind 125 

" Eliminated ; other banners flout 

" His Gothic halls ; unchanged, unchangeable, 

" We yet with beauty's freshness are enrobed ; 

" Power and delight are ours. Thee, king of kings, 

" Expected long, thee, glory of our line, 130 

" Thus thy first mother hails, crowning with bliss 

" The ambrosial cup, untasted yet by man." 

" Pour me not wine," he cries, " though it outvie 
" Falernian grapes, or e'en that wondrous drink, 
" Jove's nectar, sparkling with immortal strength ! 135 
" Wine, and what else earth bears, fairest and best, 
" Adorn my court, by me untouch'd, unprized, 
" Toys feminine and vain. Source of my race, 
" And, as thy presence speaks, fit mother ! I 
" With other thoughts approach thee, than become 140 
" Nerve-softening banquets. If, defying death 
" Which lords o'er the creation, thou art join'd 
" By close communion and eternal ties 
" With bright intelligences, lift the veil 
" That hangs o'er fate and time !" " Well hast thou said, 145 



26 ATTILA. 

" My son," the fair divinity replies. 

" There is no time for dalliance to the great, 

" Who should bestride earth's empire. Spirits of might 

" Array'd against us shake this nether world, 

" And its old altars crumble, long bedew'd 150 

" With pagan sacrifice. The Holy One 

" Has seal'd his people, from our kingdom bought 

" By his own blood. Angels, and Thrones, and Powers, 

" Descended from the heavenly concave, walk 

" This earth, our just inheritance. The Breath 155 

" Pour'd from the Highest, with no mortal strength 

" Upholds his flock. Revered full many an age 

" By the Quirinal senate, on her hearth 

" Cast headlong the maim'd form of Victory lies. 

" Saturnian Jove, and all the deathless throng 160 

" That peopled huge Olympus, from their fanes 

" Upon the .sevenfold mount have toppled down 

" Sore humbled. Still thro' Rome the edict rings, 

" That stripp'd their godhead, marshalling on high 

" The fatal cross in hierarchal pomp. 165 

" And thou, short-lived survivor, giant-limb'd 

" Serapis, lord of Egypt, hast beheld 

" Thy dome, which rivalPd the great Capitol, 

" With its portentous image overthrown ; 

" While thy mute worshippers, appall'd, in vain 170 

" Look'd for the avenger's lightning, and forethought 

" Pestilent desolation from the dearth 

" Of Nile's withholden bounty, who nathless 

" Abundantly rolls on, dispensing joy. 

" But power shall still be ours. The heathen war 1 75 

" Shall deluge thy fair bosom, Italy ! 

" Rome, the world's mistress in the iron reign 



BOOK II. 27 

" Of tutelary Mars, unnerved and weak 

" Shall rue her alter'd worship, bow'd as low 

" Beneath the Hunnish steel, as once upraised 180 

" High on her eagle pinions stretch'd mid-heaven. 

" Thou, bulwark of the nations, hope and strength 

" Of heathendom, by all the powers conjured 

" In darksome league against the Anointed, swear 

" Unquenchable hatred to the long foretold 185 

" In *Jebus, and His reign. So shall thy sway 

" By aid immortal prosper, still secure 

" Thro' all mischances ; in triumphal pomp 

" Thy wheels shall roll through the eternal town, 

" Red with victorious dew. But, if thine heart 190 

" Once waver, if the dread of Him, Supreme 

" Amid his thunderous host, appall thy soul, 

" Thou art dissever'd from all hope, and lost, 

" Flung headlong from the pinnacle of sway 

" To the abyss. So fell Rome's mightiest foe 195 

" Alaric the Goth, enthrall'd, enslaved, baptized, 

" By whom he conquer'd." " Perish all who quail 

" Beneath that dread !" the dauntless king replied ; 

" Nor sue I for the aid of thee or thine 

" To quell the Roman battle, well assured 200 

" Of who against the Christ make head and war ; 

" But fearless of corrival, and quite pall'd 

" With earthly pomp, my chafing spirit yearns 

" To overleap the barriers of the flesh, 

" Which blinds its sight. Unveil, if power be thine, 205 

" The gorgeous face of nature, and bewray 

" All things that be, disclosing to my view 

* The ancient heathen name of Jerusalem. 



28 ATTILA. 

u The boundless universe, space, matter, soul, 

" In all their wondrous amplitude ! If then, 

" Mother divine, thy son unworthy shrink 210 

" From that majestic vision, shent his pride 

" And broken be his bow !" " Thy haughty speech 

" More asks, than she or dares or can reveal," 

That elder answer'd ; " nor behoves it, king, 

" Scenes of such awful aspect meet thine eye 215 

" Initiate, ere the irrevocable oath 

" Have pass'd thy lips, and thou hast quaff'd that draught, 

" Powerful to steel the nerves against all ill 

" Present or future. Dare, and be supreme !" 

This said, the cup he proffer'd, rich with gold ; 220 
And, at his grasp, the liquor hiss'd within, 
High frothing o'er the brink. A fearful sigh, 
From nature's secret depths, shook every leaf 
At that dire bidding. Nought appalld, the Hun 
Upraised his ponderous falchion, gift of Hell, 225 

And by that damned brand, meet instrument 
For such dread purpose, swore the eternal curse 
Against Heaven's holiest ; then drain'd the cup, 
With its thick dregs of bitterness. Earth heard, 
And shudder'd from her inmost; darkness stole 230 

Over her face, as tempest mountain-born 
Throws slowly its deep shade o'er vale and lake 
On which the red light glares, while far aloof 
Each Alpine summit like a furnace glows 
Through the storm's night. So thick came utter gloom 235 
Involving the fair scene, while hellish fire 
Stream'd round that elder's brow, and demon shapes 
Metcorous thro' the awful darkness shone. 
Like storm that gloom o'erpass'd, when heaven relumes 



BOOK II. 29 

Mountain and varied vale, and each red peak 240 

Fades in the light. Before him stood confess'd 

He, erst hurl'd headlong from the etherial cope, 

Python, as high in glory once, as now 

Accurst and fallen. By his side, unveiFd 

In base deformity, lay hideous Sin, 245 

Erewhile so seeming fair, married to Hell, 

Such her vile boast, and deathless as her lord. 

Around, her sisters, as herself, impure, 

With bloated visage, brutish in their mien, 

In spirit worse. Each had her impious mate, 250 

Elsewhere in temples or on hills profane 

With incense worshipp'd by unhallow'd hands, 

The loathsome flock of him, whom daring pride 

Dragg'd headlong to perdition, changed in form 

(So will'd the All-just) from glory. They confused 255 

Revell'd in guilt, while thus the Archfiend, " O king, 

" The draught, which thou hast quaff 'd, no other deem 

" Than desperation ; not of earthly weal, 

" For worldly glories shall be thine, thick-reap'd ; 

" But of His kingdom, cherub-borne who rides 260 

" Through the immense, wielding eternal might, 

" Despair and total abjuration. This 

" Drain'd to the uttermost, no hope remains, 

" Save in confliction with that Power, who deems 

" Himself omnipotent, and this our reign 265 

" By Him permitted for wise ends ; yet finds, 

" And haply still may rue, divided strength 

" Held here by whom He boasts to have subdued, 

" Outcast and chain'd. What chains, save those which 

" wreathed 
" With fragrance-breathing flowers voluptuous Joy 270 



30 ATTILA. 

" Weaves for her votaries, thou see'st ; and man, 

" Our slave and Sin's, shall witness, though His Spirit 

" Strive vainly, wrestling with the thrones of night. 

" To who has drunk this cup, evil is good, 

" And Sin in her own form is fair, nor needs 275 

" That robe of glamour, spun by her first-born 

" Hypocrisy, the subtlest elf in hell. 

" But ne'er before this hour to man earth-born 

" Hath Sin unveil'd her aspect, else adorn'd 

" With charms, that take the spirit through the sense, 280 

" Delusive blandishment. For thee, king, now 

" Our comrade, equal in despair and guilt, 

" The veil of nature is uplifted. Gaze 

" Upon unbounded regions, and o'erleap 

" Sight's limitary verge." He ceased, but still 285 

Rang through the monarch's ears the fiendish tone. 

A giddy qualm came o'er him; for, self-poised 

As who should look from the precipitous point 

Of Cotopaxi, or the eternal snows 

Which Himalayan peaks lift nearer heaven, 290 

He stood, or deem'd he stood, above the range 

Of earth's horizon ; and with marvel scann'd 

The infinite creation. Distance seem'd 

Annihilate, and each minutest shape 

As view'd thro' optic lens. So angels see, 295 

Whose vision is not blunted by brute clay. 

Around the fount of light, their untired course 

With speed, to which the culverin's shot is sloth, 

He saw the planets wheel, a wondrous choir 

Each with its starry spirit ; and other globes 300 

Eccentric sail, from whose mysterious forms 

Millions of leagues across the kindling void 



BOOK II. 31 

Stream'd wide the blazing miracle. Beyond 

Shone other suns, of which an arrow's flight 

In fifty thousand summers would drop short, 305 

Begirt with worlds, of which the least might seem 

As fair as this, or goodlier : more remote 

Spheres huge and crowded, to the sage's ken 

Seen as a nebulous haze, thin strewn afar 

On the blue firmament; and systems, roll'd 310 

In distance unimagined, shew'd distinct 

As to the All-seeing eye, whose glance surveys 

His wide dominion at one thought. Aloof 

A dreary tract and darksome he espied, 

Where the gigantic* archetype, obscure, 315 

Pass'd like a shade before him ; by whose form 

First fashion'd in perfection, the Allwise 

In a more humble mould created man 

After the great original, lest his strength 

Should scale heaven's star-paved ramparts, and in arms 320 

Provoke his Maker. There huge semblances 

Of worlds unborn, which the Creative word 

Not yet had moulded into being, slept 

With shapeless bulk, like huge behemoths ; there 

The baseless wrecks of times and things long spent, 3*25 

Ere Cherubim or Seraphs were, to Him 

Known only who is First and Last. There wastes 

Of stagnant frost, where genial light ne'er reach'd 

Evoking life ; and vast vacuity, 

Where nothing is, or shadowy forms that seem 330 

Nor spirit, nor substance. Nearer in mid space 

* See the Latin lines of Milton on the idea of Plato concerning the 
archetype. 



32 ATTILA. 

He saw the city* of transparent gold 

By jasper walls encompass'd, like a bride 

With glorious gems adorn'd, and massive gates 

Of orient pearl : where sorrow never comes, 335 

Nor scorching heat of noontide, but serene 

The changeless glory of the Holiest beams. 

All nature shone reveal'd, with every power 

Portentous or beneficent ; thef sprites 

Unseen, that hover o'er the dewy birth 340 

Of rose or lily, tinging the fresh bud 

With fragrance-breathing blushes, and the shapes 

Which ride heaven's forked bolt, and howl in storms ; 

And, mightier far, those angels, which direct 

Each in its orbit the self-balanced spheres, 345 

Weaving their wondrous dance. All these and more 

(Shapes multiform) he saw, terrible and fair; 

But strange amazement held him, while his view, 

Passing those lesser lights and regions clear 

Of heaven's seraphic satrapies, approach'd 350 

The heaven of heavens, unequal to contain 

Its Maker, but adorn'd to be the throne 

And inmost dwelling of immortal bliss, 

Where angels hail His presence, and with hymns 

That steep in ecstacy each ravish'd sense, 355 

Bend round the shrine of might. Beauteous and pure 

He saw them spread their particolor'd wings, 

And from the glory of the Holiest draw 

Wisdom and life ; but further could not pierce 

* The heavenly Jerusalem. See Revelations xxi. 10, &c. 
t It was the opinion of the early fathers, that the air is peopled with 
spirits. See Eusehius Orat. de laud. Constant. Augnstinus Epist. 49. 
Ilicronimus Not. on St. Paul to the Ephesians. 



BOOK II, 33 

The blaze of light ; for spirits have not power, 360 

And least of all such spirits, fallen and foul, 
To unveil the world's great Author ; nor hath man 
Beheld his God, nor could behold and live. 

Him, lost in gazing, thus the Arch-fiend bespoke. 
" Cease, King, to muse on distant spheres, and seats 365 
" Which never may be thine ! Beneath thee stretch'd 
" Earth lies, thy prize and birthright." As he said, 
Clouds, dense as Erebus, enclosed that scene, 
But, robed in verdure, still beneath him stretch'd 
The earth in full luxuriance. " Close below 370 

" Lies charcn'd *Engaddi," (thus the tempter spoke) 
" Where Siddim's garden bloom'd. There fairy breasts 
" Thee, from thy cradle ravish'd, fed with milk 
" Ambrosial, and thro' all thy limbs infused 
" Vigour invulnerable, gifts of powers 375 

" That hover'd o'er thy birth. The flaming brand 
" Drove man's first parents from the tree of life 
" Ejected, to subdue the unthankful glebe, 
" But I and mine, the princes of this world, 
" Admitted nestle near the flowery site 380 

" Of Eden snatch'd from earth, and the swart East 
" Obeys my bidding. Our blithe revels, held 
" Near man's old cradle, have defied the host 
" Angelic, and perchance, while time endures, 
" Shall brave it still. All eastward, as thou see'st, 385 
" Of yon cold range to Sericana's strand 
" Is mine, untouched by that new creed, which, sprung 
" From slavish Palestine, has marr'd the Powers 
" That raised great Rome to glory ; now reversed 

* Attila styled himself" Nursed in Engaddi." 
D 



34 ATTILA. 

" To bow beneath the faith of Him, who died 390 

" With malefactors on the transverse tree 

" By stubborn Juda rear'd. To seal His death 

" I enter'd his betrayer bodily, 

" And thus incarnate conquer'd. View the mount 

" Opprobrious, where He bled ! That day I stood 395 

" Full opposite Jehovah's shrine, behind 

" Swift Kidron, on the right of that famed hill,* 

" Where, deem'd of men the wisest, David's son 

" Built fanes to Chemos and the idol grim 

" Of Moloch, f nigh the grove of Sidon's queen, 400 

" Night-beaming Ashtoreth. Unseen I gazed 

" Upon Jerusalem, and Him who left 

" The glory of his Father, doom'd to walk 

" In sorrow to the grave, which cast Him forth 

" Loosed from the bonds of death. That fatal morn 405 

" Little of godlike majesty He wore, 

" Bow'd low beneath his cross, a man of woes, 

" Insulted by the rabble at His heels 

" Baying like blood-hounds, and the merciless shout 

" From those who clamour'd at the judgment-seat 410 

" To crucify their Lord ; scourged, crown'd with thorns, 

w And on His gory back a purple robe 

" In mockery thrown ! I saw, and fill'd the hearts 

" Of His revilers with my own fierce joy; 

" And amply might that triumph overpay 415 

" My fall from heaven's bright dwellings, to the abyss 

" Where on the throne of darkness I abide 

" With Night and Chaos leagued. When Death prevail'd, 

* On the right hand of the Mount of Corruption, which Solomon, &c. 
2 Kings, xxiii. 13. 

t The highest point of the Mount of Olives. 



BOOK II. 35 

" And it was finish'd, e'en the sun shrunk back 

" Into primaeval gloom ; the firm earth quaked, . 420 

" And prophets starting from their tombs arose, 

" So mighty was the hour. Mark there the site 

" Of Jebus, by Messiah's worshippers 

" Now Salem call'd. Around Jehovah's shrine 

" Its marble domes stretch'd north of Zion's hill 425 

" With gold and porphyry adorn'd ; but He, 

" Who therein dwelt in glory undescried, 

" Forsook the seat of mercy, and abroad 

" Scatter'd his people ; from the shrine exiled, 

" His angels fled ; then heathendom wax'd strong, 430 

" And that proud fabric, wrapt in hostile flames, 

" Upblazed unto the throne of majesty. 

" Now, mortal, turn, and nigh that bitter pool 

" (Where, buried, Admah and Zeboiim lie 

" With their abolish'd # kindred, water'd once 435 

" In Siddim's flowery site with grateful streams, 

" E'en as an earthly paradise, prepared 

" For joy and secret orgies, but too near 

" Their f sister, equal in offence, yet chosen 

" To be his seat, who f from the Lord in Heaven 440 

" Rain'd fire and sulphurous death) the prisons view 

" By superstition rear'd, to make man's creed 

" A double curse. Where a § secluded race 

" (Remnant of that || saved city, from whose lust 

" Moab and Ammon sprung) dwelt unrenew'd 445 

" By woman's fruitful love, and rites perform'd 

" Abhorr'd of the Almighty, with new faith 

* Sodom and Gomorrah. t Jerusalem, see Ezekiel xvi. 48 &; 51. 
t The vengeance of the Father executed by the Son. Genesis xix. '24. 
§ The Essenes. || Zoar, sec Genesis xxiv. 30, &c. 

J) 2 



36 ATTILA. 

" Thou see'st like abstinence ; monastic seats 

" Each with its laura* girt, a garden once 

" Of evergreen delight, but now of cells 450 

" An austere girdle. From yon tower-deck'd hill 

" By Tentyra palm-crown'd and that vast wreck 

" Of once gigantic Thebes, they stud the plain 

" Up to Nile's cataracts. There view the walls 

" First rear'd by famous f Anthony ; not him, 455 

" Who, for a faithless and polluted toy, 

" Lost power and life. That proud one sanctified 

" In the lone desert amid tombs abode, 

" While, round him, shapes incorporal throng'd; some sate 

" With frightful visage propt on either knee 460 

" Grinning perdition ; some, like toads obscene, 

" Crept loathly on his sight ; others less foul 

" With features feminine ; most power have such, 

" Alluring soul and body to like end. 

" An hundred years, and longer, he endured 465 

" Amid temptations, which have oft made saints 

" Howl in their cells. Nigher Pachomius dwelt, 

* Lauras were evergreen gardens adjoining to sacred buildings. 
Laura is a Greek word of the highest antiquity, occurring in the Odys- 
sey, and understood to mean the public street. The thoroughfares 
in the neighbourhood of pagan temples being planted with the sacred 
daphne or bay, I apprehend that the Latin name laurus for that tree, 
was derived from the situation it occupied. Such gardens adjoining 
the temples of idols, which the deluded heathens worshipped by devo- 
tional acts of unchastity, were of course the scenes of great licentious- 
ness, for which the laura of Antioch was particularly celebrated. Women 
of abandoned character were called in Greek stoichesi-laurai, street- or 
laura-walkers. 

t See the engraving from the celebrated picture of the temptations 
of St. Anthony. He lived above 100 years, if his biographers are 
correct. 



BOOK II. 37 

" Whose zeal marr'd heaven's best gift, with sterile weeds 

" Involving woman's loveliness. Next came 

" Syriac Hilarion, who lay half an age 470 

" Immured nigh Gaza's swamp ; Basil, whom wilds 

" Of savage Pontus held, where twice each sun 

" His clarion thro' the inmost forest rung 

" A deep-breathed call to prayer : and he* of Tours 

" Ambitious, who in rigid garb austere 475 

" Sway'd the rude tribes of Gaul. O fonls, to think 

" That life, and all that makes man's life a gift 

" And not his curse, were by his Maker given 

" To wither unenjoy'd, mid torments plann'd 

" By his own mad invention ! Cast thine eyes 480 

" Eastward from Antioch, where high in air, 

" Yon column towers. Upon its giddy point, 

" E'en at this instant, in the pangs of death 

" Lies Simeon,f named from that strange pinnacle, 

" Where thirty years, like a sepulchral form, 485 

" He hath endured the blast and summer heat 

" Exalted above earth ; nor even thus 

" Untempted. I, in garb angelic veil'd, 

" Assay'd his strength, against all suffering proof, 

" But not its praise. I stood before him clothed 490 

" With heaven's transcendent brightness ; on a car 

" Of fire ethereal, in the silent gloom 

" Of still cerulean night: and, Mount, (I cried) 

" With me thro' the expanse, and thou shalt know 

" The spirit of Elijah, doubly pour'd 495 



* St. Martin of Tours. 
t Simeon the Stylite died the same year the battle of Chalons was 
fought. Concerning the monkish legend of his death in consequence of 
stepping into the devil's chariot, see Gibbon's Hist. vol. G. 8vo. 



38 ATTILA. 

" On thine illumined soul ! Chosen of the Highest, 

" Guide thou the car of Israel, and the steeds 

" Which bore him on the whirlwind ! — Vain of heart 

" Into that car of glamour he upraised 

" His foot to climb : whereat, with power endued 500 

" Through his presumptuous pride, I smote his thigh 

" With such a nauseous wound, as charms or prayer 

" Could never heal. He lay in life half-dead, 

" Corrupting in the sun ; but this his hour 

" Must loose those mortal throes. To such have men 505 

" Adjudged the palm of holiness. Insane, 

" Benighted minds, that deem sweet pleasure sin, 

" And self-infliction virtue ! Vigils, fasts, 

" Fanatic stripes, pave their dark road to heaven ; 

" Yon secret dwellings, like the ardent brass 510 

" Of *Phalaris, send forth imprison'd moans 

" Breathed from their inmost vaults, which well might glut 

" Ears feller e'en than his. Yet there, e'en there, 

" Towering Ambition nestles. Wrapt in cowl, 

" Bare-legg'd, and shorn of locks, his humbled front 515 

" He covers with hypocrisy, but pants 

" To gird the mitre on his brow, emblazed 

" In hierarchal pomp, and trample kings 

" With that now naked foot. Behind him Vice 

" Shall steal into those cells, and soon invade 520 

" E'en the pontifical purple. Thou descriest 

" Yon gorgeous temple, the Christ's tomb and shrine. 

" An age, and half an age, those walls may yet 

" Give glory to Jehovah. Then shall come 

" Another scourge, and the o'erwhelming arms 525 

"* Tyrant of Agrigentum, who roasted his victims in a brazen bull. 



BOOK II. 39 

" Of that triumphant worshipper* of fire, 

" Whom, champing golden bits, to conquest bear 

" Shebdiz or Barid,f while his banners flaunt 

" From Antiochia to the fertile plain 

" Water'd by Nile ; till him Mohammed's X voice, 530 

" Predicting strange reverses, shall arrest, 

" And that strong arm,§ which cast a giant's bulk 

" Plumb into Sams, from the offensive couch || 

" Aroused, shall dissipate the golden f spears, 

" Which threaten'd e'en Byzantium. Then thy power, 

" Mahound, in heaven foredreaded, shall usurp 

" The chosen land, and thy vice-gerents raise 

" Upon the ruin of Jehovah's fane 

" Domes worthy my abode; while he,** whose might 

" Victorious from red Nineveh bore back 540 

" The cross to Solyma, shall make relapse 

" To his incestuous chamber, thence evoked 

" By Caaba's prophet but to work my will." 

This said, the Arch-fiend paused; while, on his brow 
Majestically dark, malignant joy 545 

Gleam'd terrible ; then glanced his jealous eye 

* Chosroes, King of Persia. 

+ Shebdiz and Barid were the names of his favourite horses. 

J Mahomet's pretensions to prophetic inspiration were principally 
founded on his prediction of the reverses of Chosroes. 

§ The emperor Heraclius, famous for his strength, having thrown 
a gigantic champion, who defended a bridge across the Sarus, into the 
river. 

|| Of his niece Maria. 

1T The title of the army arrayed by Chosroes against Constantinople. 

** Heraclius, after defeating Chosroes at Nineveh, where he is said 
to have recaptured the original cross that had been carried away from 
Jerusalem by the Persians, returned to his incestuous connection with 
Maria. 



40 ATTILA. 

To that far island, stretch'd beyond the Gaul, 

Old Merlin's famous haunt, where Saxon dukes 

Were striving with weak Vortigern. He knew 

That heaven-blest land, first glorious thro' thy pomp, 550 

Pendragon's fabled son !* in after times 

Equal to Rome should stand upon the fields 

Where freedom crowns the brave, and on the planks 

Of tempest-beaten vessels ; but by him 

Most hated, for her love of social rights 555 

And faith celestial, which her canvass wings, 

Fluttering thro' every sky, shall scatter wide 

To spicy Indus, to where Ganges rolls 

His seven-fold stream, and the dim hills that rose 

In the secluded chambers of the west, 560 

Where, doom'd to shine on states unnamed, unborn, 

Bright Hyperion lit primaeval wilds 

Where then behemoth ruled. O Albion, queen 

Of the cerulean billows ! since that hour 

How often has the evil spirit scowl'd 565 

Upon thy counsels, with the felon wish 

To scare thee from the noble eminence, 

Which thou shouldst win among the sons of earth ! 

Albion, my country ! thro' what fearful scenes 

Of civil carnage and tyrannic force, 570 

Thro' what dark passages of guilt and blood, 

Fanatic fires, or base corruption bred 

In thine heart's core, hast thou emerged to be 

A beacon to the righteous, a bright hope 

To holy freedom, wheresoe'er the sun 575 

Shines on the opprest ! Thro' what hard trials yet 

* King Arthur. 



BOOK II. 41 

Lies thine exalted course ! whether assail'd 

By reckless and irreverent thirst of change 

Defacing thine old image, or weigh'd down 

By the heart-numbing taint, gender'd by pride 580 

And fastuous love of ease. March on secure 

To thy great destiny, and ever keep 

That one unchanging star before thy view, 

(Whose steady beam shall be thy certain guide 

To the Hesperian port, where thou shalt pluck 585 

The golden branch, for thee and thine reserved, 

To sprinkle with the dew of happiness 

The many, by the word of holy truth 

Made wise, and shelter'd from the wrongs of power) 

The glory of thy God. To him unmoved 590 

The king of nations proudly made reply. 

" Of honours not mine own, prophetic fiend, 
" I little reck thy visions. If those realms, 
" That cradled once the Christ, to me denied, 
" Await Mohammed's coming, — be great Rome 595 
" The guerdon of my toils ! Thou wonderous source 
" Of empire and of fame, who with the world 
" Twelve centuries hast striven unsubdued, 
" Still marching on the outspread wings of Time 
" To victory and power ! I mark but thee 600 

" In all this wide creation, and thy walls, 
" Which seem entire to scorn the assault of years, 
" My rival and my hope ! Ye marble halls, 
" Ye seven bright mountains with your towery crest, 
" Temples and stately palaces, which gleam 605 

" Beneath that azure ever-glowing sky, 
" And slopes with purple-cluster'd vintage crown'd, 
" Unblench'd in full-zoned beauty, ye invite 



42 ATTILA. 

The steel-clad ravisher ! On Chalons' field, 
Proud Rome, I yet must win thee !" " Chalons fight 
Is done ;" (with bitter smile the tempter spoke 
Sarcastic, for fiends mock whom best they speed) 
Its glory, whosesoe'er, e'en now floats down 
The unconquerable tide, which man or God 
Hath ne'er roll'd backward. Thou thy march pursue 615 
Through bleak Helvetia (hail'd the scourge of God) 
By Danau to that rude Pannonian town, 
Which, if thy soul stand firm, shall soon eclipse 
Rome's splendour. Mark the skirts of that dark host,* 
Beyond fArtiaca its homeward course 620 

Winding towards Tolosa, ne'er again 
To issue leagued with Rome ! The imperial might 
Shall melt before thee, like the wintry mist 
In dewy Arduenna, when the sun 
Bursts thro' Oarion's f bands. But mark, proud Hun, 
Thy compact. Thou art sworn to those, who know 
Nor mercy, nor remorse ; thro' them upheld, 
By them forsaken, if thy spirit shrink, 
Thou fall'st ; deep yawns the baseless pool beneath, 
Where nor thy glories, nor that spell-born sword, 630 
Will ought avail. Thou would'st see all and know ; 
Lo, I am he, whose essence unapproach'd 
Mid Chaos shrouded, in the cavern dwelt 
Of lone Eternity, Mahuzzim § call'd 
Or Demogorgon ; for my secret name, 635 



* The Gothic force of Torismond. 

t Arcis sur Aube, on the way from Chalons to Troyes. 

t Canst thou loose the bands of Orion ? Job. 

^ Sec Daniel xi. 38. 



BOOK II. 43 

' Worshipp'd in black Gehenna, is* blasphemy, 

4 The abomination making desolate, 

4 Which, whisper'd, would resolve earth, heaven, and hell, 

* Into primordial atoms, and disperse 

4 The universal wreck thro' barren space, 640 

4 Unreach'd and boundless. I am he, whose rites, 

1 Once my elect, the Northernf king, sent forth 

4 From Antioch victor, in Jehovah's shrine 

4 Placed high above the Highest, a stronger power 

Unknown to his forefathers.^: Duly there 645 

6 My shrine was heap'd by those apostate Jews, 
6 Who stole the titles of enchanters old 
4 Jason § and Menelaus, famed in Greece, 
4 Whose ship the serpent steer'd, in after times 
4 Devour'd in Egypt, when the Hebrew's wand 650 

4 Prevail'd o'er old|| Canopus. To that prince, 
' As now to thee, my greatness stood reveal'd, 
4 Darkness, not light. To him, exalted high, 
4 I gave the glory ; and his strength, which slew 
4 The fourscore % thousand in God's Salem, soon 655 
4 Should have outstripp'd Rome's empire ; but his heart 
4 Quail'd, basely cowering with religious awe ; 
4 Whereat I left him, and his putrid limbs ## 

Stunk, living, to the sun." So falsely spoke 
The arch-deceiver ; for Jehovah smote 660 



» Revel, ii. 1. xix. 12. t Antiochus Epiphanes, see Daniel xi. 

$ Daniel xi. § 2 Maccabees, ii. & iv. 

|| Canopus or Kaneph the serpent steered the ship of Menelaus, and is 
the star at the helm in the constellation of the ship Argo. Tiphys, steers- 
man of the Argo, is from the Greek ophis, a snake, with the article pre- 
fixed. 

11 2 Maccabees v. 14. ** 2 Maccabees ii. 9. 



44 ATTILA. 

Him in his proud career, whose daring rage 

Polluted e'en the holiest, placing there 

Antioch's accurst palladium ; and too late 

He rued, repentant when Heaven's bolt was sped, 

The diabolical league, while hateful worms 665 

Crept thro' the purple and denied his crown. 

" Thou wouldst see all and know ;" (the fiend resumed) 

" Disclosed one instant view the sulphurous surge 

" Which lashes that dread shore, whence souls, that err 

" Thro' the broad way, to that eternal goal, 670 

" Find no return !" This said, with hellish might 

He rent the pall of darkness, and beneath 

Tremendous gaped the unfathomable gulph. 

A momentary vision, and a crash 

Wherewith heaven's portals rung, reveal'd to man 675 

What voice may not unfold, nor mind conceive. 

Short space, ere darkness follow'd, such as hung 

Brooding o'er ancient chaos, ere the sound 

" Let there be light" from Nature's shapeless womb 

Drew that pure essence, swifter than the word 680 

Traversing the immeasurable void, 

And wafting joy to worlds beyond the vast 

Empyreal concave. Silent mused the Hun, 

As reckless of the gloom, not unawares 

What power beside him stood ; when far aloof 685 

Sounded that wizard horn, at midnight oft 

Known in Hercynian wilds, (the peasant's dread) 

A strange and thrilling strain. " Thou hear'st the chase 

" Of once thy proud forefather," darkling spoke 

The sprite unseen, " Nembrod* renown'd of yore, 690 

" A mighty hunter once and tyrant king. 



* Attila styled himself grandson or defendant of Nembrod or Nimrod. 



BOOK II. 45 

" At stillest hour each night he winds his horn, 

" Still trooping over moss and forest drear 

" After the chase ; till him his blood-hounds rend, 

" Nightly raised up, to feast the insatiate maw 695 

" Of that fell pack." He stopp'd, for nigher now 

Rang the wild huntsman's horn, a fearful call, 

Whereat each savage in his tangled lair 

Upstarted, from the wilds of Curdistan 

Or Ashur-Nineveh to Kiblen's* ridge ; 700 

And with Cerberean throats bay'd horribly 

A thousand elfin dogs. Those sounds, intent, 

The Hunnish courser knows ; with ears erect, 

Nostrils distended wide, and eyes like coals 

Of glowing fire, he snuffs the welcome blast ; 705 

And, once more, nothing doubtful, though thick night 

With raven wing encircles him, renews 

The ungovernable race. With whoop, and cry, 

And yells of hellish discord, brake and cliff 

The ravenous howl reverberate; and oft 710 

A lash, more dread than the relentless scourge 

Of those snake-hair'd avengers, from whose hate 

The parricide demented flies in vain, 

Clang'd, echoing thro' the shades. Still onward sprung? 

Oft as that thong resounded, the pale horse 715 

Of Attila, precipitately borne 

To join the horrid chase, which far before 

Outstripp'd his speed ; till, half in distance lost, 

Shrieks of the victim torn by ruthless fangs 

Came on the fearful breeze ; then all was hush'd. 7*20 

Right glad was Attila, when those sounds ceased ; 

* In Norway. 



46 ATTILA. 

And, issuing from the gloom, he saw the sun 

Smile on the dewy landscape. Onward straight 

He pricks across the plain, to that huge camp, 

Where thousands wait his will, to live or die. 725 



ATTILA 



BOOK THIRD. 

As when, by darkness shrouded, or awhile 

Detain'd in mist, from cold Aurora's couch 

Springs Hyperion like a giant forth 

Refresh'd with sleep ; his glorious track on high 

Rejoicing he pursues, while earth, air, sea, 5 

Awaken'd hymn his praise with voices sent 

From each illumined solitude. The Hun, 

Resplendent so, amidst his army stood ; 

So welcome to that bold array, which mute 

Awaited him, their bond of strength and power. 10 

Terrific was his semblance, in no mould 

Of beautiful proportion cast ; his limbs 

Nothing exalted, but with sinews braced 

Of Chalybean temper, agile, lithe, 

And swifter than the roe ; his ample chest 15 

Was overbrow'd by a gigantic head, 

With eyes keen, deeply sunk, and small, that gleam'd 

Strangely in wrath, as tho' *some spirit unclean 

* People having godhead within them were anciently held to have a 
peculiar glare of the eyes, as iEsculapius, Paus. 1, 2. c. 26. Bacchus, 
Nonn. 1. 9. v. 104. Oghuz, founder of the Tartarean empire, Abul Gazi 
Khan Hist. Tatur., and in later times wizards, and people sold to the 
devil, or in commerce with him, have had the same phenomenon ascribed 
to them. Phil. vit. Apoll. 1. 4. c. 10. 



48 ATTILA. 

Within that corporal tenement install'd, 

Look'd from its windows, but with temper'd fire 20 

Beam'd mildly on the unresisting. Thin 

His beard and hoary ; his flat nostrils crown'd 

A cicatrized swart visage ; but withal 

That questionable shape such glory wore, 

That mortals quail'd beneath him. On his breast 25 

Teraphim fierce, the Charontean *head 

Of Antioch, in burnish'd metal shone. 

Elated, he beholds the Christian league 

Wreck'd in Theodoric fallen, and the words 

Of hell's fanatic f sisterhood achieved, 30 

Who prophesied defeat, but in that loss 

A gain more worth than victory ; one head 

Devoted unto death, which should outweigh 

The blood of slaughter'd thousands. The wide plain 

Lay open, yielded by the parting Goth ; 35 

Rome's hill-camp'd force, too feeble to renew 

The desperate collision, silent watch'd 

Suspected J Sangiban ; such dark mistrust 

Had crept between their counsels : and what front 

Shall Meroveus muster, to repel 40 



* The Charontean head existed still at Antioch in the ninth century, when 
Johannes Antiochensis described his native city. In the second or third 
century it was the God of the heretic Marcion. See Prudent. Hamart. 
502, who, speaking of the rock of Christ, says, " nee te solida sta- 
tione movebit ipse Charon mundi numen Marcionis." See also v. 129, 
et seq. where he identifies Nembrod the hunter with the Charontean 
head, calling him the God of Marcion. That head was a Gorgon, or 
snake-hair'd head. 

t The prophetesses who always accompanied the Hunnish army. 
X King of the Alans. 



BOOK III. 49 

The Scourge of heaven ! so call'd, what time, his powers 

From Orleans marching, him the hermit cross'd 

Stung with prophetic fire, and hail'd him thrice 

By that dread name, sent forth in vengeful wrath 

To lash adulterate Europe, and wipe out 45 

A generation vicious and condemn'd. 

E'en as o'er some low province, long defiled 

By epidemia or the spotted plague, 

Sheer Aquilon comes rushing, to dispel 

With gelid wing the unwholesome taint, and purge 50 

The stagnant air. Nor he that call disdain'd, 

Which squared with vast pretensions, though the God 

He own'd, was darkness, not Jehovah ; like 

That king accurst *in Antioch, o'er all 

Himself who magnified, or bow'd to none 55 

Save the dire head in Erebus. That name 

Of malediction Attila emblazed 

Amidst his glories ; from old -j-Nembrod sprung, 

And nursed by spirits on the fairy lap 

Of bright Engaddi, (lovelier than the bowers 60 

* Antiochus Epiphanes, see Dan. xi. 
t Nicolas Olaus, a writer of the 13th century, says that the title of 
Attila was Nepos Magni Nembrod, in Engaddi nutritus, Dei Gratia 
Hunnorum, Medorum, Gothorum, Danorum rex, metus orbis, and that 
he afterwards added flagellum Dei thereto, propter eremitas verba. 
Calvisius says, Ipse Attila scripsit se regem Hunnorum, Medorum, 
Gothorum, Danorum, metum orbis, Deique flagellum. Calvis Chronol. 
This is collateral evidence drawn from a different source, for he would not 
have omitted the remarkable part of the title, descendant of Nimrod and 
nursed in Engaddi, if he had seen it. Petrus de Reva says that Attila 
(Monarch. Hung. p. 827, Ap. Bel. Ser. R. H.) was called alter Nemrod 
vel similis Nemrod. The nations of the Huns and Magyars were said 
to be descended from two sons of Nimrod. Thrwocz. Chron. Hung. c. 2. 
p. 44, &c. 

E 



50 ATT I LA. 

Where tuneful Circe and Calypso ruled, 

Or * Amalthea rear'd the rosy God 

Amid secluded sweets) sole king of Huns, 

Medes, Goths, and Danes ; the terror of this world, 

And scourge of God. So ran the haughty style 65 

Of Mundiuc's son. Upon his helmed head 

The kingly bird of retribution sat 

With diadem crown'd;-}- that ensign wrought in gold 

Blazed on his standards, and with burnish'd plumes 

Defied the eagle of majestic Rome. 70 

Firmer in pride, in purpose, and in hope, 
Upheld by dire Gehenna, now he breathes 
Extermination to the sister thrones 
Of Christ's great empire ; by their fall secure 
A kingdom, mightier than the crowns of earth, 75 

To build on that apostate creed, which yields 
Glory to the Evil one invoked from Hell, 
Ares, or Ariman, or bloody Mars, 
Pan, Satan, or the blasphemous name untold 
Of dreaded Demogorgon, or what else 80 

The nations, prostrate at his shrine, have calPd 
Him won by sorcery and appeased by sin, 
Accuser, adversary, and of this world 
Libidinous prince, with all his goatish crew, 
Hair'd ,/Egipans, that revel round their chief 85 

* Jupiter Ammon made Amalthea queen of a large valley filled with 
vines and other fruit trees, where there was perpetual spring, universal 
health, sweet breezes, running waters, birds of exquisite song and 
plumage, and rocks of every colour. Every perfume abounded there, 
never did a flower fade or a leaf fall. When Bacchus was born, he sent 
him to be nursed in this valley, the mount in the midst of which was 
called Amalthca's Horn. Diod. Sic. 1. 3. c. 07, G8. 

t The vulture was the bird of Nemesis. Nonnus, 48. 382. 



BOOK III. 5! 

With sport obscene. Nearer the heart of Rome 

He bids advance his banner with the dawn, 

Strong in his foemen's disarray ; first held 

A festive celebration to his God, 

Scythian Acinaces, whose massive weight, 90 

Portentous symbol, in his scabbard hung, 

Unwrought, untemper'd steel ; from * Babel's wreck 

Borne erst to Babylon by priests impure, 

Emblem of fEnyalius ; long since 

Again reveal'd in Scythia, and preserved 95 

Nigh Tauric Dian's J image, where the fane 

Of dread Enyo and Comana's towers 

O'erlook the Sarus. Through the ranks forthwith 

The consecrated trump with summons shrill 

Re-echoed. At that signal round the pyre, 100 

Where piteous mourn'd yestreen, foreboding death, 

The flower of Eastern beauty, elate and blythe 

Gather'd the pagan throng. Upon his left, 

Beloved of Attila, in regal pomp 

Stood Arderic, counsellor discreet and brave, 105 

And over-faithful §to the unrighteous cause. 

Gloomy the banner, dark was the array 

Of his Gepidians, with their nation's badge, 

The raven mantle deck'd. Oft has the shout 

Of those black legions, like the yell of fiends, 110 

* See Josephus. 

t The Greek name used by Josephus for the war-god Ares or Mars. 
Enyo was the war-goddess Bellona. 

J Dion Cassius says that the sword with which Iphigenia sacrificed 
to the Tauric Diana was preserved and shewn in a temple at Comana ; 
indeed two temples pretended severally to possess it. See Strabo also. 
^ Nimia fidclitas. Jornandes. 
E 2 



52 ATTILA. 

Scatter'd dismay amid the host of Rome. 

By these were many a race of Suevic blood, 

Proud of their knotted curls and unclipt hair, 

Who worship the all-fruitful Earth ; with them 

The patient * .ZEstyans, who near the main 1 15 

Balsamic amber from its secret fount 

Exuded reap ; and with huge clubs array'd 

Secure in battle on their foreheads rear 

Cybele's guardian seal, the bristling boar : 

And fierce Semnonians, that with human blood 120 

Pollute their public feasts, dragging in pomp 

With heifers their veil'd Goddess from the grove 

Misnamed of heathens chaste, a senseless stone 

To share their gross delights ; then wash the car, 

The Goddess, in her lake, which may not purge 125 

Their guilt, but swallows her devoted slaves 

Slain in that foul ablution. Call'd to war 

From their idolatrous shades with bristling steel 

The Naharvalians gleam'd ; of kindred race 

With them, more dread, the Arian tribe was seen ; 130 

Sable their shields, their skins to blackness stain'd, 

They seem'd like sons of Erebus and Night 

Joining in mortal strife ; and most they loved 

Nocturnal enterprize, where Doubt and Fear 

Stalk undistinguish'd, and the crash of arms 135 

Unseen re-echoes to the slumbering heaven. 

Three brother kings in scarlet on the right 
Muster'd their Ostrogoths ; brave Videmir, 
Most free from guile in all that pagan host, 
And Valamer the strong, from whom f shall spring 140 

* See Tacitus de Mor. Germ. t See Phot. bibl. 



BOOK III. 53 

Royal Theodoric, fore-doom'd to hold 

Rome's sceptre. Near them with parental pride 

Theodemir his young Argotta view'd, 

Whose budding charms, sad Alberon, shall bless 

Thy couch hereafter, and wipe out the thought 145 

Of thy beloved, whom fierce Aetius seized 

Amidst her bridal, while the virgin blush 

Yet linger'd on her cheek ; but, true to joys 

Thus early ravish'd, he the Gothic maid 

Gloomy regarded not. His weaker arm 150 

Upheld the shield, which long-hair'd Clodion bore, 

Whereon had Salic Pharamond been raised 

Unto a king's estate. Upon its orb 

Three toads # in gold, three argent moons were graven, 

Three lily-headed spears of azure steel. 155 

His iron casque was circled with the heads 

Of spears long used and rough, but won by him 

And broken from their shafts ; above, his head 

Environing, the golden aureole seem'd 

A crown of aether. His equerry held 160 

Aloof his war-horse, on whose forehead shone 

The bull's head wrought in gold, and on its front 

Glared the full eye of Mithras. On his robe, 

In purest ore pourtray'd, three hundred bees 



* Among the principal articles discovered at the exhumation of Chil- 
deric, at Tournay, were the Mithriac Apis, a golden bull's head with the 
sun radiated in the centre of his forehead, supposed to have been a 
covering for his horse's face. Three hundred golden bees, some with 
eyes and mouths, others blind and mute, supposed to have been a fringe 
to some part of his accoutrements ; a seal with his name graven on it, a 
scarabaeus, and a toad, (certainly, by the engraving of it, not a frog as 
it has been called) &c. 



54 ATTILA. 

Mysterious hung; Essenian* wisdom, fetch'd 165 

From far Engaddi ; on his signet shew'd 

A scarab's graven image, as he grasp'd 

His sceptre, ending with a mimic hand, 

Two fingers stretch'd to seize, two closed to hold. 

Thus dight, and mournful, nigh his future queen 1 70 

Stood Alberon, and little then forethought, 

That from their issue must hereafter spring 

That great one,f cinctured with imperial might, 

Whose glorious paladins should raze from earth 

The bulwarks of the Hun. Beside them stood 175 

Andages, boastful to have spoil'd of life 

Western % Theodoric, by his kindred lance 

Amidst the flood of victory cut short. 

His yellow tresses, his pure skin, and cheeks 

Fresh with the bloom of youth, outvied his garb 180 

In brightness ; the red tissue, and the vest 

Of snowy silk, the trappings rich with gems, 

And belts of glossy gold. The Bactrian king 

Not unregarded in that warlike throng 

Display'd his regal pomp. Him father call'd 185 

Mycoltha, whom the Hun, of nuptial joys 

Ever insatiate, with libidinous glance 

View'd, doubtful of his purpose, half achieved 

In later revels ; but Jehovah's arm 

* The name of the Essenes, the ancient recluses of Engaddi, signifies 
in Greek a swarm of bees. 

t Charlemain was the rightful heir of Clodion, being descended from 
Alberon. 

t Theodoric was said to have been killed by Andages an Ostrogoth in 
the army of Attila. His subsequent adventures are fictitious. The 
dress of a young Goth of rank is described by Sidonius Apollinaris, as 
well as that of the Goths in general. 



BOOK III. 55 

Cut short his boast. The damsel's tenderest years 190 

Had sported in thy vast unpillar'd halls, 

Bamiyan,* sculptured in the living rock 

By patriarchal strength, when mortal life, 

Yet unabridged, might gloriously complete 

What the bold mind conceived. Oft had she view'd 195 

The smile which, radiating at sunrise, lit 

Thy features, Buddha ! whose colossal form, 

High towering from the Bactrian glen, stands yet 

Near thy gigantic consort, and bestrides 

The porch of thine enormous fane ; and oft 200 

Gazing above had seen, where flamed to heaven 

Abrupt Cophantus,f with his crest of fire 

By magian rites adored, and, trickling fast 

From the great ridge of Caf,:f its waters flow'd 

To Patala, and all that sacred land 205 

Where the scorch'd Indian feigns the gates of Hell 

Far southward. Clad in raiment bright and gay 

Behind their chiefs were ranged the Eastern Goths, 

Flower of the battle. Particolour'd plaids, 

Close fitted to their brawny forms, left bare 210 

The arms and vigorous hams ; their surcoats rough 



* See Asiatic Researches, vol. 6. Balch Bami or Bamiyan was the 
famous Bactra of Pliny, Strabo, and Diodorus Siculus ; there is cer- 
tainly no volcanic mountain in the existing Balch Bokhara, situated in 
an irriguous valley. It is said that the colossal statue of Buddha ap- 
pears to smile when the first beam of the morning sun shines upon it. 

t Flagrat in Bactris Cophanti noctibus vertex. Plin. N. H. I. 2. c. 
110. Bactra is the city, not the country Bactriana. 

t The Indus springs from the part of the Caucasian ridge called Paro- 
pamisus, in which is the wonderful excavation of Bamiyan. lb. 1. 6. c. 
20. Patala and the delta of the Indus was the Avernus of the Hindoo 
poets. 



56 ATTILA. 

Of furry spoils, tight belted round the flank, 

Hung from the shoulder, whence the cloak of green 

With purple margin floated to the breeze. 

The bristly horse-skin round their naked feet 215 

Was firmly bound ; their bare arms held on high 

The missile hatchet, or the hooked spear 

Which oft had reap'd death's harvest ; round the boss 

Of tawny metal from their full-orb 'd shields 

Stream'd the white beam reflected. Prized for speed 220 

Bearded Herulians rear'd their gleamy helms, 

Arm'd with straight swords, and ponderous arrows slung 

Across their naked backs ; the girdle rude 

And sandals their sole garb ; stern militants, 

Inured to hear unmoved the secret moan 225 

Of widows, burnt on the funereal pyre 

Amidst the wail of infants ; like the dames 

Of Palimbothra in far Orient. 

Not with vermilion ceil'd or purple clothed, 

Sat unadorn'd, and simple in his state, 230 

The glorious Hun, upon his regal throne 

Raised, as a God, above his subject kings. 

Beside him, partner of his loathly couch, 

Smiled Eskam in luxuriant prime of youth, 

His daughter and his bride ; sprung from the womb 235 

Of Hindarfell's* enchantress, who had brought 

Virginal beauty and forbidden lore 

To desecrate a brother's nuptial bed, 

Hilda, too famous in romance and song, 

Born for his bane. Far in Burgundian halls 240 

Indignant, mute, breathing revenge, she mourns 

' Sec the Scandinavian sagas. 






BOOK III. 57 

The double incest, from his bed outcast 

To be a vassal's mate. She never smiled 

Upon false Gunther, her Burgundian lord, 

Wedded by fraud, and of the death-like trance 245 

By treason thrown upon her beauteous frame 

Unconscious, till aroused too late, to know 

The wrongs inflicted, from his grasp she sprung, 

The raven tresses o'er her snowy breast 

Pressing in anguish, while the bright red flush 250 

Gave tenfold beauty to that wondrous form, 

A glory and a curse to who have reap'd 

Her fatal charms. Nigh shameless Eskam sat 

His thousand queens. There, once his dearest joy, 

Light-hearted Regan, amorous and vain ; 255 

There Creca, mother of his chosen race, 

Staid in matronal dignity ; near whom 

His best-loved Irnach stood, by seers e'en then 

Foretold to be his throne's successor, strong 

To bend the Scythian bow, or wield the lance, 260 

In unfledged infancy. His earlier hope, 

Ellac, first-born of Creca, by the pile 

Had ranged his Acatzires with kingly state 

Near Attila's own Huns ; their garb the same, 

Linen o'erlaid with ermine, and soft spoils 265 

Of meaner tribes, that rob the golden hoard 

Of husbandmen, the frugal housewife's dread, 

Closely compacted furs. Long tale and hard 

It were, man's wit surpassing, to record 

The pagan* banners multiform and strange. 270 

* Distinguebantur Cimbri tauro, Sclavi dracone, Gepidie navicula, 
Alani, Burgundi, ac Suevi catto in militaribus signis. Olaus Magnus, 
lib. 2. c. 25. 



58 ATTILA. 

The Suevic cat, with unrelenting gripe 

Ready to spring, the Cimbrian rampant bull, 

The dragon, moulded in Sclavonian brass, 

And the Gepidian ship, a famous sign 

In battle, e'er since the sacred keel, first hewn 275 

On Dodonean Tmarus, and impell'd 

By heroes* from the pent Mseotian swamp, 

Stemm'd the new strait into that midland pool, 

The stagnant sea of Saturn,f whose dead waves 

Stretch'd wide and tideless to the Arctic strand ; 280 

Till thro' that passage, amid sibilant reeds 

Borne shouldering down the flood, a wider course 

The thundering volume rent, and, rolPd amain 

Beyond the Herculean columns, with sheer weight 

Submerged J Atlantis, in one night and day 285 

Abolish'd from the nations. Not less famed 

Upon an azure field the lion crown'd 

Exalts its head above three milk-white mares, 

The Gothic § ensign. All collected raise 

Their threatening symbols round the martial pyre. 290 

As when the labouring west is charged with clouds 

Sulphureous, ready from their womb to loose 

Discordant winds, and bolts of forked fire, 

That still delay their wrath, while Nature steals 

For loveliness a respite ere its wreck, 295 

And yet the fierce artillery of heaven 

Is silent ; so portentous, and so mute, 

The awful gathering of heathen war 



* The Argonauts. t See Orpheus argon. 

$ Sec Plato, Tim&cus, and Critius. 

$ See Olaus Magnus. 



BOOK III. 59 

Hangs round the Hun. Before its ranks advanced, 

He from his scabbard draws the idol grim, 300 

Divine Acinaces. That steel upraised 

Myriads adore, to Britons known erewhile, 

What time the phantom monarch they revered, 

Son of Pendragon hight, whose wizard life 

Was wedded to Excalibar, that thrice 305 

Waved its strange summons o'er the flood, and he 

Evanish'd ; but still viewless * oft at night, 

Like that terrific hunter, who first wore 

The charmed sword in Nineveh, with horns 

Rousing each savage from his lair, he sweeps 310 

The darksome covert, and shakes Albion's cots 

With midnight awe ; and still, midst iEtna's wilds 

Precipitous, where blasted Typhon writhes 

Stretch'd under huge Pelorus, secret rise 

His fairy halls, embower'd in changeless spring; 315 

Where, scaped from Modred's strife, he yearly mourns 

The recrudescent wound. Nor long, before 

The venerated falchion, stain'd while-ere 

With bloody orgies in Comana's fane, 

Shall arm the spirit of that sainted f fiend, 320 

Still England's guardian name, and oft invoked 

Amid the din of war, whose magic blade, 

Chalyb, from Cappadocia unto Nile 

Vex'd God's elect. That sword, whate'er its name, 

ChalybdicJ, Chalyb, or Excalibar, 325 

On Chersonesus, to the hero's § shade, 



* King Arthur. See the traditions concerning him in Gervas Tilbur. 
de regn. Brit. + St. George. 

t So called by Lycophron. § Achilles. See Eurip. Hec. 



60 ATTILA. 

Who rose in golden armour from his tomb 

Vindictive, slew the lovely * one ; f itself 

Divine, and long constellated in heaven 

Beside that mighty hunter,:): call'd in Thrace 330 

Candaon and Mamertus, God of strife. 

Bared for like rites, as bloody, and as foul, 

Though sixteen ages, unrelenting years 

Of dark idolatry, have pour'd their rust 

On the gore-boulter'd symbol, o'er the pile 335 

Erect and fixt it glares. No altar stands 

Blood-sanctified ; no impious shrine conceals 

The abomination, open and unveiFd ; 

No hoary priests with wreath or fillet crown'd 

Attend the victims. Like those fierce § ones, dark, 340 

Dread, unapproachable, who danced around 

Three-headed Hecat and the iron form 



* Polyxene. 
t See the splendid eloquence of Prudentius, who was depreciated by 
Gibbon, because he was a vigorous and unanswerable defender of 
Christianity. 

Contempto Principe vitse 
Perniciem veneratur homo ; colit ipse cruentum 
Carnificem, gladiique aciem jugulandus adorat. Prud. Hamart. 

The sword, by which Polyxene was sacrificed, was called Chalybdic by 
Lycophron, that of St. George was called Chalyb, of Arthur Excalibar. 
Their identity is evident. It was the sword in the constellation Orion, 
the Greek name for Nembrod. Lycophron calls it the sword of Candaon, 
and identifies Candaon with Orion, by calling him three -fathered, with 
relation to his fabulous birth. Some MSS. of Lycophron have trita- 
phrou phasganoi Kandaoros, alluding to the bothros tristoichos. Orjm. 
Argon. Either Lycophron, or the scribe who inserted tritaphrou, must 
li;i\c been conversant with the cruciform fosse of the Therapnean sacri- 
fices. See below, book 7. v. 80. 

t Orion. § See Orpheus Argonautica. 



BOOK III. 61 

Of old Pandora, when the wondrous * bard, 

Who scaped unhurt from Hades, lull'd to sleep 

The serpent golden-scaled, and Dian's whelps 345 

Before the fratricidal f sorceress fawn'd ; 

So horrid, near the heap funereal, stood 

Women, J not women, rather daemon shapes, 

Children of § Alirune, the bride of Hell. 

Such ever trooping with the Hunnish war 350 

Did the curst work of sacrifice, inspired 

With murderous phrensy. Loathsome and unsex'd, 

In snowy vest, cinctured with brass, they stand 

Barefooted by the pyre ; shamefully skill'd 

To froth their brazen cauldron with the blood 355 

Of each devoted captive, by the knife 

Slain like a beast ; and not less skill'd to cast 

The right-hand lopt, like a forbidden thing, 

To moulder where it falls : then from the trunk 

Laid bare, and palpitating entrails, draw 360 

Strange omens fanciful and wild, to Huns 

Predicting conquest. At the awful clang 

Of music, known in solemn feasts of death, 

They crowd, like hovering vultures, when the trump 

Of kindling battle brays, foreboding blood. 365 

Selected from the herd, a perfect band, 

One from each hundred, forth the captives move, 



* Orpheus. + Medea. 

$ For the details of such Scythian sacrifices, as here represented, see 
Herodotus, 4. 62. and also Strabo, 7. p. 425. who describes the pro- 
phetesses by whom the Cumbrians were accompanied in warfare, and 
their mode of sacrificing the captives. 

§ See Book 1 . and 2. and Jornande* de reb. Get. 



62 ATTILA = 

Fit sacrifice to Mars, a * murderer 

From the beginning. As in glory first, 

Foremost in rank, the brave Ostorius comes ; 370 

Than whom a nobler form, with grace mature 

Herculean strength combining, never Rome 

Sent forth to war. Captive ere Chalon's fight, 

He mourn'd not liberty, nor glory lost, 

Nor life thus forfeit ; but a keener pang 375 

Assail'd him, while his eye survey'd his bride, 

In full-zoned loveliness array'd, serene 

Lucilia, beaming through her golden locks 

Meek resignation and undying love, 

Propt by the hope that saves. Not that bright pair 380 

Nearest man's archetype and least debased, 

Ere sin corrupting had abridged his span 

Of life and stature, fresh midst Eden's joy 

In undecaying beauty, might excel 

Their blameless symmetry. Behind them chain'd 385 

Came what of Latin youth, or Gothic, sank 

Chiefest and noblest mid the serried cars, 

When ebb'd the flood of victory; never more 

To tread the tented field, ambition's walk, 

Where glory flings o'er homicidal force 390 

Her golden mantle, and builds high in air 

A deathless name ; in such an hour how vain ! 

Well pleased the king surveys those gallant forms, 

Worthy his great oblation ; but his eye 

Dwells wondering on Lucilia ; marks her brow 395 

Angelic, her meek pudency, upheld 

By glowing faith to suffer, worse than death, 

* Mars was tried in the Areopagus for the murder of Plalirothius. 



BOOK III. 63 

Abhorr'd exposure in the idolatrous throng, 
Their omen, and the mangled pledge of hate 
To the Most High. One glance first turn'd on her, 400 
His treasure of this world, Ostorius spoke, 
Strengthen'd by holy fortitude and trust 
In Him, who suffers not one hair to fall, 
But for wise ends and bountiful. " O King, 
Well needs that I with joy approach this pile, 405 

And glorify the Father, who has sent 
Thee, girt with terror and Abaddon's crew, 
To scourge his people. I nor ask, nor wish, 
6 Remission from this bloody pomp of death, 
6 Permitted, not to honour that grim sword 410 

' In vain aspersed by thine idolatries, 
6 But for our sinfulness, by Him who gives 
6 Power to the Evil one, and, thro' His will, 
6 How foul soever, sanctifies the deed. 
6 Would, royal Hun, if man may dare to wish 415 

6 Ought his Creator wills not, thou and thine 
6 Were like as I am, gladder in these bonds 
6 To work salvation to my deathless soul, 
s Than gird the glorious majesty and might, 
6 Which thou but wearest for a season. Time 420 

' Will come, when that keen steel, the bruised reed 
6 On which thou leanest now, shall pierce thee ; curst 
' By who created all things for their good, 
c Though Powers perverse, who magnify thy pride 
< Against thy Maker, at their bitter cost 425 

* Have marr'd the scheme of His beatitude. 
4 Me and my blest companions death, thus sent, 
8 Shall purge of earthly sins, and lift from hence 
To amaranthine bowers, inwreathed with joy, 



64 ATTILA. 

" Which shall be there for ever. Upon me 430 

" Thy will, whate'er, be done. One only boon 

" Ostorius asks his conqueror. This hand, 

" Betroth'd in spotless purity, was mine, 

" And is, if ought belong to mortal man 

" In death's last article ; and, grant it, Heaven, 435 

" By some mysterious tie may still be mine, 

" Where angels neither woo, nor wed ! I ask 

" No boon of life for this my beauteous one, 

" Meet offering to her God, who may resume, 

" Whene'er he wills, his own ; but yield her sex 440 

" Immunity from these opprobrious rites ; f 

" Let nothing that polluteth near her come, 

" And O ! respect her slain !" He ceased ; a blush 

Bright as vermilion, o'er Lucilia's cheek, 

Stain'd the clear ivory with a lovelier hue, 445 

Than fresh Aurora from her dewy car 

Sheds on the opening rose-bud ; her mild eyes 

With downcast lashes veil'd their modest beam, 

And met not his ; but softly did her hand 

Return his pressure, while unspoken thoughts 450 

Came full of memory o'er her spirit. " Chief," 

Replied the king, and ardent look'd the while 

Pollution on that fair one, " thy bold speech 

" Deserves a boon, and rightly hast thou craved. 

" Released, she stands our ornament and joy, 455 

" Worthy a monarch's bed : rich tissues, tents 

" Breathing Sabaean sweets, and equal rights 

" With these my chosen consorts, shall be hers ; 

" Pre-eminence in station, as in form 

" She is excelling bright." A kindling flush 460 

Shot sudden o'er her brow, and vanish'd straight ; 



BOOK III. 65 

While, raising on the king her stedfast eye, 

(As strengthen'd against fear) her beauteous face 

Serene and pale confronted him. She stood 

Like some ethereal visitant, so still 465 

And unperturb'd. Her spirit, which erewhile 

Clung to her husband only, now aspired 

Unto their heavenly Father, and the throne 

Where peace with glory dwells. That perfect peace, 

Which dove-like from his innermost abode 470 

Descends on God's own people, when the prayer 

Of patient suffering is by angels raised 

Up to the heaven of heavens, confirm'd her soul 

With consolation free from doubt or care, 

And tranquil thus she spoke. " I marvel not, 475 

" Great Attila, for great thou art in power, 

" And deeds of earthly daring, best undone ; 

" I marvel not, that thou should' st tender wealth 

" And sublunary treasures bought by shame 

" Unto a Christian woman. Thou hast drunk 780 

" At other fountains, whose pernicious stream 

" Curdles thy better thoughts ; the source of life, 

", Whence all, who will, drink freely, for thy thirst 

" Has never well'd. But learn, chief proudly throned 

" Upon a thousand tributary thrones, 485 

" That unto us a Saviour, long foretold 

" By strains prophetic, while unwilling proof 

" Flow'd from the voice of sybils and of seers, 

" Has oped the narrow door, through which who come 

" To Him for comfort, shall arrive that bourne, 490 

" Where all thy transient honours, the frail toys 

" Thy power could offer, would be counted loss ; 

" And He alone can close Hell's awful gates, 

F 



66 ATTILA. 

" And bind and loose for ever. From thy boon 

" Of mercy I appeal. Willing and glad 495 

" I yield me to the sacrificial sword ; 

" And this weak frame the Lord, who, in the day 

" Known only to Jehovah, from the dust 

" Shall raise it to eternal life, adorn'd 

" With lineaments more like his glorious self, 500 

" Now order as he will." Immediate wrath 

Flamed from the monarch's eye ; instant he gave 

The fatal sign, whereat a dismal strain 

The deadly music blew, mysterious notes 

Attuned melodiously ; and, at their close, 505 

Arpad, the bard of Scythia, raised his song. 

" Sword of the giant,* who up-piled to heaven 
" His tower stupendous, hail ! Bereft of sight, 
" Facing the glorious sun, his eagle eyes 
" Again drank light and power, where first he roused 510 
" The chase in Nineveh, before the Highest 
" A mighty hunter. Near Arcturus now 
" His deathless f image, with the starry belt 
" Ethereal, flames ; thy semblance, sword divine, 

* Nimrod, called by the Greeks Orion. The eyes of Orion having 
been put out, he is said to have recovered his sight by looking at the 
sun in the East ; which appears to mean that he recovered kingly 
authority by removing eastward to Nineveh. See Prudentius Hamart. 
v. 129, &c. and 520, where he identifies the evil principle or God of 
the heretic Marcion, with the head of Charon worshipped at Antioch, 
the hunter Nembrod, and the Sword-god. 

Hie ille est venator atrox, qui csede frequenti 
Incautas animas non cessat plectere Nembroth. 

t The constellation of Orion, who is identical with Nimrod. The 
river Eridanus, which flowed through the Elysian fields, was fabled to 
spring from the heel of Orion. 

1 



BOOK III. 67 

" Gleams by his side in heaven. Sole source of power, 515 

" In iron majesty to man reveal'd ! 

" Oft has thy blade to votive slaughter given 

" Maids fairer than Polyxena, or she 

" Who fillet-bound distain'd thy Tauric shrine, 

" Gore-sprinkled Taranis, with rites, herself 520 

" Escaped in Aulis. On thee Scythia's shame, 

" Apostate Scylas, pour'd the stream of death, 

" What time his domes with Parian sphinxes girt 

" Blazed thunder-smitten, while he wreathed his crown 

" With Bacchanalian ivy, and perverse 525 

" Join'd in the maddening thiasus, like Greeks 

" Effeminate ; for which before thy pile 

" His head* was in Borysthenes struck off, 

" Just retribution for who died, erewhile 

" Opposing those vile orgies, piecemeal rent 530 

" By his fierce mother on Cithseron's brow. 

" Three-father'd f mystery ! eternal sword, 



* Scylas, king of the Scythians, was beheaded in Borysthenes by his 
subjects for engaging in the Bacchanalian rites, which they abhorred, 
and his marble palace, built after the Greek fashion, was destroyed by 
lightning, according to Herodotus- Pentheus was cut to pieces by his 
mother Agave for obstructing the orgies of Bacchus. 

t Orion was called Candaon by the Boeotians, and the same was 
Ares or Mars, as appears from two passages in Lycophron, in which he 
calls the Thracian God of war Candaon or Candseon and Mamertos, 
v. 890. and 1370. He calls, v. 328. the sword which slew Polyxene the 
three-father'd sword of Candaon, Orion having been fabled to be the 
son of Jupiter, Neptune, and Apollo jointly ; and he transfers the 
tripaternity to the sword itself, which was considered to be divine and 
identified with its possessor, as it was in the case of king Arthur, who 
could not exist a moment without it. Achilles, and after him Neopto- 
lemus, pretended to have inherited the original sword of Orion, and the 
pretension of Attila was similar. See Tzetzes on Lycophron, and also 
Priscus. 

F 2 



68 ATTILA. 

" Candaon ! brighter than the brand which wheel'd 

" Eastward of Eden, when our parents fell ; 

" On earth again apparent, and flung forth 535 

" From the empyreal height, auspicious hear ! 

" Let now the fulness of predestined years 

" With Europe's subjugation end the strife 

" First broach'd in old Irawn, when Babel fell 

" And Troy's Pergamean towers ! Accept the blood 540 

" Of these our victims, and uphold our host !" 

Scarce ceased the mystic strain, when soft and low 
Arose the hymn of Christians, by the voice 
Of mild Lucilia led. Pathetic swell'd 
That dirge of martyrs, like the latest song 545 

On smooth Caystrus or the Asian pool 
Warbled by swans expiring. Peace, hope, joy, 
Attuned its melody, and exulting faith. 
It call'd on Him, whose arm is ever nigh, 
A present help in trouble ; and, as the strain 550 

Ascended higher and higher, the pagans stood 
In silent ravishment ; for voices pure, 
Celestial warblings, breathed in upper air, 
Seem'd sweetly to prolong each dying note, 
As if their * angels, who in joy behold 555 

The Father's face, were wafting it to heaven. 

Upon their lips the hymn yet trembled, when 
The consecrated trumpet once again 
Blew the known signal ; and with ruthless speed 
The cinctured harpies on Ostorius fell. 560 

Him unresisting in his chains they dragg'd 
To their abominable cauldron, stain'd 

• In heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father 
which is in heaven. Matth. xviii. 10. 






BOOK III. 



69 



With gore of ages. Motionless and pale 

His silent agony Lucilia saw, 

And that loved hand, so oft in glory's field 565 

The dread of heathens, which her own so late 

With tenderest pressure clasp'd, now cast in air 

To be a sign prophetic, and the prey 

Of Belgic ravens. She beheld, and ere 

The fierce ones to their second quarry stoop'd, 570 

Her heart had ceased to nutter, and her soul 

Was render'd spotless to its God. Amazed 

The ministers of murder saw her drop, 

Whiter than meadow-lily, or a wreath 

On Thracian Hgemus of untrodden snow, 575 

Beside the abhorred pile. Untouch'd they left 

Her beauteous limbs, as pagan Romans shunn'd 

The sad bidental smit by fire of heaven. 

A savage shout those hideous women raised, 

And, foil'd of their best victim, seized with rage 580 

Their meaner prey. Precipitous on three sides 

The structure rose, built up with leafy spoils 

From Arduenna's waste ; the glorious oak 

Superbly spreading, like the shades of Jove 

Adored in green Epirus ; fragrant lime 585 

With clustering blossom, whence the winged tribes 

Famed in Hymettus drink ambrosial dew ; 

Aerial ash, and sycamore's broad arms, 

And rowan with its crest of ruddy gold, 

Maple, and pensile birch. The other front 590 

Rose gradual, easy of access ; above 

Rear'd on the summit gleam'd with blade erect 

The iron God. Their work of slaughter done, 

Four Amazonian furies, drunk with blood, 



70 ATTILA. 

Upheave the cup of sacrifice, and make 595 

Ample libation from the frothing brass 

To the dark king of terrors. Him, aspersed 

With crimson dew, emblem of right divine, 

They bear again with reverential awe 

To royal Attila ; then, fierce and loud, 600 

Take up the strain of prophecy. Not she 

In rocky Phocis, while the laurel grove 

Self-shaken trembled with the present God, 

Pour'd deeper note of inspiration, fill'd 

With powerful breath of Python; when the blast 605 

Of * him, who bore his Erechthean bride 

To frozen Thracia, or the wondrous halls 

Whence Asian Odin sprang, out-pour'd with might 

On Casthanaea, at her ominous call 

O'erthrew the Persian, by his billows dash'd 610 

On foaming Sciathus and Pelion's side. 

Thee, Rome, upon thy seven Hesperian hills, 
Array*d in f scarlet, and with gems adom'd, 
Thee they defy, in thy majestic ease 
Soon to be widow'd, when the kings of earth 615 

Shall see thy burning, and the triple curse 
Of famine, death, and mourning on thee fall. 
They boast a greater one than thee arisen ; 
A shout of victory ! whereby aroused 
The Jews are gathering % to Crete, prepared 620 



• Boreas, who carried off Orithyia, daughter of Erechtheus, on which 
account the Athenians were warned by the oracle to invoke his assist- 
ance, and the Persian fleet was consequently destroyed by the north 
wind. Odin is stated in the Edda to have been the son of Bor or Boreas. 
t See Revelations xvii. 4. and xviii. 8. 
t Sec Hist treat. ^ 24. and note 10. 



BOOK III. 71 

For Armageddon's field, whene'er the Hun 

His banner shall uplift on Ida's crest, 

Expected Antichrist, and plant his might 

In that idolatrous cradle, where the old * king 

From Nineveh's fierce hunter sprung, possess'd 625 

Great Jove's original empire, the oak woods 

Of Crete, green navel of the world, between 

The triple continents. There whilom rang 

The Corybantine brass in Rhea's grove, 

And arm'd Curetes danced with lance and shield 630 

In shades of changeless verdure, fit retreat 

For Saturn's son. Thee, Attila, they sung, 

The man-child f long foretold, with iron rod 

To rule the nations ; from that mother born, 

* Cres the son of Orion reigned in Crete, which was called after him. 
Hesselius in Ennium, p. 324. Cres was the eldest son of Nimrod. Got. 
Vit. Pantheon, part 3. p. 88. Jupiter was born in Crete. When Saturn 
would have devoured him, his mother Rhea, having given Saturn a stone 
in swadding-clothes to swallow, concealed Jupiter in the island where he 
was educated by the Curetes, who beat the cymbals or Corybantine 
brass incessantly to prevent his infantine cries from betraying the place 
of his concealment. 

t See Revelations xii. 1, &c. The prophecy is supposed to relate 
to Constantine. It cannot be doubted that in declaring himself nursed 
in Engaddi, Attila applied it to himself. The overthrow of the dragon 
would have been more clearly verified in his view by the conquest of 
Rome, than it was by Constantine's extinguishing the paganism of the 
empire. The woman has been explained to mean the Church labouring 
under hardships 300 years, till delivered from them by Constantine, 
whom the other princes of the empire had sought to destroy. " The 
prophecy was thought to be so plainly fulfilled by Constantine's ad- 
vancement to the throne of the empire, that his statue was set over his 
palace gate, trampling on a wounded dragon : and Constantine himself 
in his epistle to Eusebius, calls his conquest of Licinius the falling of the 
dragon." — Pyle. 



72 ATTILA. 

Who, with the sun's eternal glory clothed, 635 

Fled thro' the wilderness on eagle wings 

To a place prepared of God, where thou secure 

Didst plume thine infant pinions, to o'erthrow 

Rome's dragon. Fabling so, they snatch'd the wreath 

Prophetic, twined by Christians round the brow 640 

Of Constantine, to deck their monarch grim, 

Nursed in the palmy solitude, and sent 

With other arms against the earthly strength 

Of her Mavortian throne. With loud acclaim 

The pagans, ravish'd by prophetic strains, 645 

Salute their king. The eucharist of hell 

Thus finish'd, lest the zeal of faithful priests 

Inhume the relics, when his host at dawn 

Shall march on Trecas, he bids instant flame 

Devour the pile and victims ; not so wont 650 

In safe Sicambria's hold. Gloomy and slow 

Smoke wrapp'd the structure, rear'd to be the tomb 

Of heathen wealth and beauty, now the pyre 

Of martyr'd Christians : nor less dense above 

Deep clouds obscured the welkin, while a sound 655 

Like storm increased. Anon a flash of steel 

Illumed the blackening concave, and above 

A thunderous chariot roll'd, at all points arm'd 

With bristling scythes, and many a daemon shape 

Of murderous instruments instinct with life ; 660 

Its adamantine wheels were writhing snakes, 

Its axle burning steel, borne headlong on 

By Terror and Dismay, twin steeds of Mars, 

Gore dashing from their curbs in wreaths of foam. 

Darkness impenetrable wrapp'd the form 665 

Which goaded their mad course, but dimly shone 



BOOK III. 73 

Aloft a Head terrific, on whose brow 

Was graved the name ineffable ; that name* 

Is blasphemy. The pagans with mute awe 

Adored the abomination, which soon pass'd 670 

Amid the veil of smoke and flame ingulph'd. 

Each to his quarters, when those rites were done, 
Withdrew the painim chiefs ; at dawn prepared 
Their banners to advance. Soft-breathing night, 
That yields, by heaven's beneficence, alike 675 

Calm solace to the just and the unjust, 
Steep'd the wide camp in slumber. One alone, 
Mycoltha, loveliest of pagan maids, 
Waked in that host. Still to her fancy's ear 
The hymn of Christians, and angelic sounds, 680 

Rose on the night; and, with a smile serene, 
Lucilia, in immortal beauty robed, 
Seem'd to invite her unto realms of hope, 
Unknown, unthought before. Whether the charm 
Of suffering virtue o'er her soul had thrown 685 

The bland illusion, or her angel's voice 
Whisper'd those strains seraphic, to allure 
The willing soul from darkness to its God ; 
Then first the day-spring of religion beam'd 
Upon her tremulous thoughts : all else around 690 

Lay steep'd in utter gloom and heedless sleep. 

The second sun scarce dawn'd upon the waste 
Of bloody Catalaunum, when a call 
From thousand instruments commingling roused 
The universal host ; and howling wolves 695 

Gave fierce response from the death-laden plain, 

* I saw a beast rise out of the sea, &c. and upon his heads the name 
of blasphemy. Revelations xiii. 1. 



74 ATTILA. 

As throng'd the clamorous legions of the air 

From Belgia's emptied forest, to dispute 

Their loathsome banquet. Forth the spacious camp 

Pour'd Attila's huge army, countless powers 700 

Asian and European , from the verge 

Of Sericana to Germanic Rhine. 

The sound of that vast movement rose to heaven 

Like the upbreaking of a world : with speed 

The strength of heathendom was girt for war, 705 

And onward moved bright columns, lengthening files 

Of squadrons neighing to the orient sun, 

And phalanxes with firm compacted front, 

And many an engine, many a thousand wains 

Heap'dwith the spoils of Gaul. The proud array 710 

Sweeps unresisted o'er the level field, 

Till, full before the van, unarm'd appear 

The walls and consecrated dome of Troyes. 

Led by the mitred Lupus, a meek band 

Of women and of burghers strew the way 715 

With flowers pacific ; yet the prelate mild 

Bows not before his conqueror, but thus 

Fronting the mighty one ; " Who art thou, Lord, 

' That with no human strength bestridest the world ?" 

* He, who should come," the impious Hun replied, 720 

1 Predicted by thy prophets, to lop off 

< The seven famed heads of Rome, and rive her horns ; 

' From green Engaddi midst the burning waste, 

' The scourge of heaven." " Then come," the priest 

rejoin'd, 
' Scourge of my God, and be on us achieved 725 

' The ever glorious purpose of his will ! 
' His servants kiss the rod." With this he laid 






BOOK III. 75 

His hand upon the bridle rich with gold, 

And stepp'd bareheaded by the charger's side 

E'en to the gates of Troyes. The king pass'd on 730 

In silent pomp before his gorgeous host, 

Till prostrate at his feet a widow * flung 

Herself and her fair daughters, wailing loud 

For mercy and for aid. " O thou, who comest 

" An angel from the deep with power to slay, 735 

" Smite not the weak ! protect these virgins !" " Rise," 

Benignant spoke the monarch ; " By my sword 

'•< I swear to be their saviour. Who e'er came 

" To Attila for shelter, and found none ? 

" Or who hath braved his terrors, and not fallen ?" 740 

This said, with hand extended, he bade rise 

The youngest of that timid train, whose shape 

In the prime bud of beauty, might have shamed 

The brightest of his court, yet scarce excell'd 

Her sisters blushing with maturer bloom. 745 

A transient hue half lit his sallow cheek, 

And strange fire glisten'd from his eyes, as wont 

In some great struggle, when the spirit within 

Gleam'd thro' the issues of its mortal frame ; 

For not, from bleak Imaus to Ardennes, 750 

So rich a freight of beauty had adorn'd 

His multinuptial couch, of recent charms 

Insatiate, and replenish'd oft by power. 

" Walk, free as fair, thro' all this host," he cried, 

And o'er her ivory neck a chain of gold 755 

He threw; "rest pure amid the wolves of war 

" Beneath the vulture's wing." Safe by his word 

* Her name is not recorded. 



76 ATTILA. 

They pass those ranks, of rapine, undefiled; 

And slowly marshalPd thro' the streets of Troves 

The pagan army files. With evil eye 760 

Stern Giulas marked their beauty, by his king 

Redeem'd from violation ; and that hour 

Of clemency requited soon with blood 

Of sainted Ursula, # and all her train, 

(A thousand holy virgins done to death 765 

At Agrippina, where good Cyriac fell) 

And that chaste fair one, f o'er her brother's corse 

Butcher'd in Rheims, who, dying, of his sight 

Bereaved her lustful murderer ; what time 

From ravaged Gallia's plain the Hun roll'd back 770 

His force unto Pannonia. The main host, 

Skirting the slope of Vogesus, moves on 

To those Acronian waters, that behold 

Sublime Helvetia, and with homeward course 

Sweeps through the Rhaetian wilds; when, strange to view, 

A raven from the forest steered its course 

Direct to Attila, and, hovering, perch'd 

Secure upon his shoulder ; then wing'd high 

Its arduous flight to heaven. The monarch hail'd 

That omen; well he knew what jetty plumes J 780 

O'ersail the world, revisiting each day 

The throne of Odin in Valhalla's dome 

* The tale of the slaughter of Ursula and 1000 virgins at Cologne by 
the Huns of Attila is founded on a mistake, (See Hist, treat. § 56.) but 
the tradition may be used in poetry. 

t Eutropia sister of the Bishop of Rheims. 

t The two ravens of Odin. See Helga v. 2565, and the notes thereon. 
Concerning the Delphic crows see Plutarch. Prudcntius states that it 
was the crow of Apollo that defended Valerius Corvinus. 



BOOK III. 



77 



To tell the deeds of glory. Well he knew 

What messengers, sent east and west by Jove, 

Met high in air above the central shrine 785 

Of Delphi's laurel shade ; what coal-black wings 

Flapp'd o'er the Roman's helmet, when his foe 

Rued sorely the strong beak and talons red 

With Gallic blood ; nor call'd he last to mind 

What saviours, upon glossy pinions borne, 790 

From Paraatonium, * thro' the perilous waste 

Led Ammon's offspring to his hidden shrine, 

When round him desolate the southern blast 

Shower'd the heart-withering sandstorm. Proud of soul, 

Thro' Alpine Rhaetia and Norician dales 795 

He pour'd his thousands, like the winged plague 

That darken'd all the fruitful plain, which Nile 

Yearly inundates, and with sullen rage 

Thro' fields all red with slaughter, smoking towns, 

And vales made desert, his triumphal way 800 

He wound unto Sicambria ; fatal walls, 

In vain polluted with a brother's blood ! 



* See Strabo. Paraetonium is now Berton or Alberton. Urbs Mar- 
maricse olim episcopalis et prsecipua. Bandraud Lex. Geog. Ammon's 
offspring, Alexander the Great. 



ATTILA. 



BOOK FOURTH. 



On iEtna's vaporous summit darkling stood 

The Adversary. Wide his sight he flung 

Upon the peopled earth, beneath him stretch'd 

In multitudinous confliction. Dreams 

Of glory, forfeit by rebellious pride, 5 

And hopes perverse, admitted oft, to be 

As oft annull'd by the event, absorb'd 

His contemplation in thoughts vast, yet vain. 

He look'd o'er spacious Europe to the rocks 

Herculean, nigh the yellow sands that trend 10 

To Csesarea, and the Libyan shore 

From Ptolemais unto Goshen old ; 

And farther, where Euphrates' holy flood 

Streams from Armenian hills, the blighted scene 

Of his first palm ; if palm that be, which gave 15 

Sorrow and death to man, but to himself 

Who sow'd * the wind, and shall the whirlwind reap, 

Confusion infinite, then doom'd to writhe 

Beneath the bruizing heel of woman's seed. 

Yet now with joy, such as beseems the accurst, 20 

* Rosea viii. 7. 






BOOK IV. 79 

He gazed on God's creation. The fifth age 

Was sailing on the ceaseless wings of Time, 

Since that great expiation, which had pluck'd 

The sting from death ; but Sin and Discord still, 

Foul harpies feasting on celestial balm, 25 

Polluted e'en Christ's temple ; Simon's # lust 

To buy and sell the flock ; false doctrine strew'd 

By various Folly, unfurling, as she march'd, 

Heretic banners. Fiercer hate,f than e'er 

From Erymanthus or rough Calydon 30 

Sent forth the shaggy desolator, arm'd 

The sheep against the sheep, in that one fold 

Which peaceful should have gather'd all and safe 

From the destroyer. On Rome's sevenfold head 

The mystic J labarum stood high advanced 35 

Above her martial eyrie, yet the crash 

Nigher and nigher still of pagan arms 

Resounded, clanging round her giant limbs 

A deadly knell. Nor less the Vandal's strength 

Look'd fearless o'er the waters, and forejoy'd 40 

Triumphal violation ; the mixt wealth, 

Christian or heathen, of her stately halls, 

And spoils from § Salem ravish' d, to adorn 

The palace of Rome's plunderer. On her coast 

Scowl'd Punic war from Hippo's || royal towers, 45 

* Simon Magus ; see Acts viii. 18. 

t Ammianus Marcellinus says that no inveteracy of wild beasts 
against each other could equal that of the different sects of nominal 
Christians in his time. 

t The Christian ensign of Constantine used instead of the Eagle. 

§ All about to be carried to Africa from Rome by Genseric in 455. 

|| Hippo regius, whence Boniface invited the Vandals from Spain into 
Africa. 



80 ATTILA. 

Where, hail'd by treason from the blood-stain'd marge 

Of * Anas to Abyla, Spain had pour'd 

Her long-hair'd warriors on the Moorish strand, 

Which once again, at treason's f second call, 

Shall vomit back on Guadalquiver's plain 50 

The crescent and the scimitar. Elate 

He saw, where Genseric resistless cheer'd 

His bloodhounds J on God's people, Arian fangs 

Flesh'd in fanatic zeal. He saw the pure 

Torn from the pleasant paths of peace, to lie 55 

Mingled in death with Manes' loathsome § crew 

In Carthage, whose fierce || patriarch shall mourn 

Sad retribution, on the blazing pyre 

A Christian sacrifice. There maids devout, 

Matrons and priests, to glut no pagan rage, 60 

Swung pendant, to the shameless gaze exposed ; 

And Libyan deserts echoed with the groans 

Of mitred victims, to the burning waste 

By mitred brethren driven. " March on, where fate 

" Goads ye demented," spoke the exulting fiend, 65 

" Flock worthy your good Shepherd ! who ordain'd 

" That brother against brother should arise, 

" Son against parent, and in sooth not peace 

" Hath left to his disciples, but a sword. 

" Soon comes my second triumph, which, foredoom'd, 70 

" Not e'en the Allwise, with all his flaming troops 

" Angelic can forefend; glorious as that 



* The Guadiana, where Genseric overthrew the Suevi just before he 
entered Africa. t Count Julian's against Roderic the Goth, 

t Genseric was an Avian. § The Manicheans. 

|| The Arian patriarch of Carthage was burnt alive by the Catholics. 



BOOK IV. 81 

" By blood of Him achieved, whom in the flesh 

" I to perdition in the flesh betray'd. 

" O once eternal deem'd, and by the Christ 75 

" O'ershadow'd now, in adamantine arms 

" See thine exterminator, led by fate 

" From the Hun's bloody lair ! Bow, Christian Rome, 

" Bow even to barbarians !" Thus the Archfiend, 

Battening on hopes of that, which might not be, 80 

And blinded by much wisdom, worn with pride, 

And not by truth illumined. Well he knew 

Rome's utter overthrow decreed on high, 

And that great sceptre, which enthrall'd the West, 

Toppling e'en then to its determined fall ; 85 

He heard the Scythian angel from the court 

Of pagan Attila evoking forth 

The conqueror * predestined ; but God's will 

Lay hidden deep beyond the reach of pride. 

Thus unregarded, tho' a Seraph's ken 90 

Search'd all the host, glided thy youthful hours, 

Odoacer, appointed to o'erthrow 

Caesarean Rome ! nor paused he to descry 

Oft crackling from thy f limbs, strong Valamer, 

Sparks of unearthly radiance, which bespoke 95 

Supreme dominion to thy Gothic heir 

Theodoric, ere five summers to be J born 

Amid the shout of victory. Vain hopes 



* Odoacer. 
t See Photius Bibl. The same phenomenon is said to have distin- 
guished the horse of Tiberius and the ass of Severus. 

t Theodoric was born, like Alexander the Great, on the day of a great 
victory. 

G 



82 ATTILA. 

Enthrall'd his vision ; for, if fiends were wise 

Unto salvation, even he had stood, 100 

Taught by foreknowledge to escape his fall ; 

But whom God wills to lose, he first obscures, 

(Mortal or spirit) and the inward light 

Becomes a lying prophet. Far beyond 

The Septimontane capital, the Archfiend 105 

Look'd to the plains, where gorgeous Danau laved 

The Hunnish ramparts ; but his jealous eye 

Glanced on a hermitage, where Savus clear, 

Fast hurrying to iEmona's short-lived towers, 

Gushes from Carnian Alps. A grot was hewn 110 

In the rock's living core, where long retired 

To holy musing, underneath the shade 

Of unpruned branches, far from the haunts of men 

Old Cyprian dwelt ; but not to those unknown 

Who thirsted for that holy well, of which 115 

He had drunk long and deeply, now erect 

In green old age, tho' eighty summers sat 

On his hoar brow, as when in vigour new 

He travell'd many a rood, from utmost Gaul 

To Alexandria and the pleasant meads 120 

Which Tigris laves, midst each benighted tribe 

Declaring Christ. Nursed in idolatrous laws, 

His parents, as their sires, not doubting, served 

Domestic gods, from the crude marble hewn 

By mortal hands and senseless. With life's milk 125 

He learn'd to kiss the smoke-polluted stone, 

And murmur praise. His way of glowing youth 

Was drunk with tales of glory and the fame 

Of Rome's primeval days, when her rude sons 

Worshipped the shrine of Victory with blood, 130 






BOOK IV. 83 

And Stator Jove from the Tarpeian rock 

Fulmined against the Senones. He heard 

Her ardent * legate before Caesar's throne 

Plead for his sacred country, and invoke 

Her Genius, like a soul, informing still 135 

The limbs of her vast empire ; and he thought 

The spirit of Rome's fortunes even then 

Was hovering o'er them, and inspired his tongue 

To strive for their religion, the old rites 

Hallo w'd by custom and endear'd by years 140 

Of conquest and dominion. His thoughts teem'd 

With ancient augurs, and the spotless train 

Of Vestal maids, who nursed the undying flame 

That lit Rome's nascent greatness, and he cursed 

The Holy One of Israel with his saints, 145 

Who marr'd the fates of Rome. Chance led his eye 

To that poetic f page, where truth display'd 

Its mirror, to dispel the phantoms vain 

Of soul-deluding eloquence, and sung 

The crown of martyrdom, what time the rod, 150 

The axe, and fire, of stern Galerius ruled 

God's people, and scourged X by unrelenting hands 

The child in anguish lisp'd the name of Christ, 

Scorning the proffer'd beverage, to cool 

Death's fever; while his mother, smiling joy, 155 

Kiss'd his blood-sprinkled limbs, and cheer'd his soul 

Half trembling at the gates of glory. Then 

The spirit of Cyprian was stirr'd ; he felt 



* Symmachus pleaded pro sacra patria, a.d. 384. 
t The poetry of Prudentius ; see his answer to the pleading of Sym- 
machus. t St. Romanus, see Prudentius. 

G 2 



84 ATTILA. 

His inmost thoughts renew'd, to spurn the Gods 

Who long had awed him, the adulterous crew 160 

Of lewd imaginations deified, 

Incestuous Jove, and his illicit love 

In bestial shapes, with all the deeds impure 

Of those adored as holy. Thus he turn'd 

Unto that sacred writ, with which compared 165 

All earthly wisdom is but foolishness. 

A pagan so he drank the saving milk 

From # Saragossa's bard ; and big with zeal 

Stretch'd eastward to the pleasant vales, that lie 

Nigh Siloa's brook, and Jordan's flowery marge ; 1 70 

And journeying by shadowy Hebron's side 

Or leafy Carmel, near the Asphaltic plain 

Fair garden once of Siddim, he arrived 

Rhinocerura and the humming sedge 

Of that Sirbonian swamp, whose treacherous pool 175 

Flanks Egypt. Fresh from scenes of holy awe, 

And full of his Redeemer, on he press'd 

Beyond Pelusium and Tamis green 

To Alexandria, where stood high enshrined 

Serapis, lord of the infernal host. 180 

There, facing Pharos and Canopus old 

Named of the serpent, (while the doubtful crowd 

Cower'd nigh the fane sublime, and popular dread 

Suspended Caesar's edict,f lest the God, 

By profanation maim'd, should breathe strange plagues 

On fertile Egypt) near the mitred pride 

Of stern Theophilus, the beardless youth 



* Prudentius, born there, died in 408. 
t The edict of Theodosius, to destroy idols. 



BOOK IV. 85 

Stood foremost. Snatching from the prelate's guard 

A ponderous battle-axe, alone he scaled 

The dread colossus, while each tongue was mute, 190 

Profane or faithful, smit with sacred fear ; 

Lest heaven, earth, sea, into one shapeless mass, 

At the first daring stroke, together rush 

Confounded : so seers threaten'd 3 and who least 

Believed, grew pale with doubt. Nathless unawed 195 

To the unveiPd visage of the God he clombe, 

Waving his weapon high. Swart Egypt gazed 

By breathless expectation rivetted. 

He smote the golden cheek ; a long loud clang 

Rung o'er the silent heads of that still throng, 200 

Who listen'd, as its echoes borne away 

Died slowly, for the thunder-clap of heaven. 

Serene it shone and tranquil, as when first, 

Call'd by its Maker's word, the green earth sprang 

From primal chaos. Then the Christian shout 205 

Rose fierce and haughty on the startled air ; 

Then pikes and axes gleam'd and massive crows, 

And frequent grew the crash, while crumbling down 

Temple and idol fell, and gorgeous walls 

Of solid masonry. Wo worth the hour, 210 

That overwhelm'd the letter'd wealth of Time 

And science in that ruin ! # all the day, 

Remorseless havoc sack'd the pagan fanes. 

Before the throne of Theodosius f cast 

By zealous Cyprian, lay the triple heads 215 

Of Egypt's dragon-monster. He to Gaul, 



* The library destroyed. 
t Theodosius was in Rome, in 389. 



86 ATTILA. 

Where Martin* preach'd, and the Bituriges 

Around the bold ascetic bow'd and pray'd, 

Trod westward. Oft, beneath his lusty stroke 

Arm'd by the imperial edict, lopt and maim'd 220 

Upon their bloody floor the rustic Gods 

Lay prostrate ; oft the venerated trunk, 

Sacred to Pan or Sylvan,f bow'd to ground 

Its votive chaplets and time-honour'd brow; 

Around which never more the simple throng 225 

Shall dance at eve, unto forbidden Powers 

Outpouring rural prayer. Thus threescore years 

Strove Cyprianus, reverenced for zeal 

Still fervent as in youth. On him the Archfiend 

Gazed long and wistful, teeming with deceit, 230 

Till, alter'd at his will, each feature grew 

To Cyprian's similitude, and his brow 

With hoary honours crown 'd, benignly calm, 

Liken'd the holy anchorite. A robe 

Girt round him by Hypocrisy, conceal'd 235 

The angelic pinions, form'd for heavenly flight. 

Thus fashion'd, from the mountain's snowy peak 

Facing Pelorus, on the deep expanse 

He threw his airy shape : the vast blue way 

Received him, gliding on his pathless track 240 

High above either sea ; past Tsenarus, 

Past Delphi, where, long mute, his laurel grove 

Still trembled at his coming ; past the rocks 

* See Sulpicius Severus's account of this daring, ambitious, self-denying 
man. 

t The Roman peasants in the time of Pliny dedicated to some God 
every tree of surpassing size and beauty. Trees were formerly the tem- 
ples of the Deities. See Pliny Nat. Hist. I. 12. c. 1. 






BOOK IV. 87 

Of Lemnos, where from the ethereal vault 

Fell Mulciber ; past that Thracian Chersonese, 245 

Which saw Leander to his unchaste love 

Led by no hallow'd fire ; until he reach'd 

Byzantium, dropping in a vaporous shroud 

Hard by the holy walls, where nothing loth 

Pulcheria # for calm prayer and vigils changed 250 

Regal magnificence ; beneath whose sway, 

Mourning her early loves and hope cut short, 

In those secluded chambers pined unseen 

Honoriaf fair and young. The stolen bliss 

Of that voluptuous passion, like a dream, 255 

Had fleeted ; but desires, awaken'd once, 

Still reign'd within her ; she had learnt the voice 

Which the flesh speaks, and all her tremulous thoughts 

Were ready for the tempter. He, revered 

Beneath that garb of sanctity, pass'd on 260 

E'en to the secret oratory, where, 

Pale and dejected, frail Honoria sat 

With languid eyes, that on the clear blue flood 

Of Bosporus, and bloomy Orient hills, 

Gazed wistful ; while a pearl of lustrous dew 265 

Beneath their fringes dark unheeded fell, 

And her unquiet bosom's rise and fall 

Seem'd struggling, underneath the silken band, 

For beauty's freedom. Of his end secure 

A form so lovely, with a heart so vain, 270 

The dangerous angel view'd ; for little needs 

The tempter's art, when full of lustful prime 



* Sister of Theodosius. 
t Sister of the Emperor Valentinian. 



88 ATTILA. 

The pulse of youth is throbbing, to his call 

Responsive. By her side, soft entering, 

Stood the dark fiend in sacred guise transform'd. 275 

Unwelcome on the damsel thus he stole ; 

But never breathes the flattery of sin 

More baleful, than when whisper'd from the lips 

Of seeming holiness. With fatal guile 

Seductive thus the Evil one began. 280 

" Sleep'st thou, Honoria, in this tranquil cell 
" Oblivious ? Do the joys of earthly bliss 
" And nature's glory on thy senses pall 
" Untasted, or half-known ; or deem'st thou such 
" With lavish hand by their Creator framed 285 

" For ends of evil ? Fairest of his works, 
" Fashion 'd in beauty, an help meet for man 
" Not form'd to dwell in loneliness, (so spake 
" His mighty Author) art thou cloy'd with life ? 
" Or is it sweet thus vacant to recline 290 

" Listening celestial hymns, which hourly rise 
" Here mid secluded vigils, and excel 
" Earth's music, warbled near the throne of kings ?" 

Thus he with subtle purpose, for he knew 
The fever nestling in her heart, and will'd 295 

To fan its baneful heat. The damsel's cheek 
Blush'd deeper than the carmine tint that glows 
Upon the front of evening, as the sun 
Sinks glorious to his couch of living gold. 
Amazement staid her speech ; from the deep store 300 
Of unborn hopes and wishes young as morn, 
Thoughts burning, by the tempter's voice call'd forth, 
Mantled her ivory brow. Far other sounds 
From cold Fulcheria and her virgin mates 



BOOK IV. 



89 



Had chill'd her joyless ear; while vain desires, 305 

Frequent and high, at the heart's prison door 

Beat fearfully. The holy-seeming fiend 

Had touch'd their source, and forth the ardent tide 

Burst sinful. As at Jove's command the * form 

Fashion'd by Mulciber in beauty's mould 310 

To be by Graces zoned, and crown'd with flowers 

Wreathed by Persuasion's hand, her casket dire 

Soft-smiling open'd, where sweet Hope alone 

Sat like a cherub, while the plagues of heaven 

Flew diverse, over man dispensing wo; 315 

So started her unhallow'd thoughts to life. 

Half fearful, more than half content, she dropt 

Her eyes, as if abash'd, while thro' the veil 

Of their long lashes stream'd the light of love, 

And guileful thus, (O impotent to cheat 320 

The Arch-deceiver !) " Deem not, holy man, 

" That, by the vast beatitude of life 

" Unmoved, and thankless for the boon of Heaven, 

" I turn from earthly joy, or that the world 

" With all its glorious gifts of good and fair 325 

" Palls on my bosom ; but, unskill'd to stem 

" The shoreless waste of its untravell'd tide, 

" A maiden's dread may fitly choose retreat 

" In the still gloom of holiness. What wills 

" My father with his handmaid ?" " Seasons fit 330 

" For prayer and vigils, fit there are for deeds," 

The fallen spirit replied. " Long hours have I 

" Knelt in seclusion on the damp cold stones, 

" Wrestling in prayer: but roused, when need required, 

* Pandora, 



90 ATTILA. 

" I journey'd thro' the wide and troublous world 335 

" To do my mission, and proclaim the Christ. 

" And, lo ! a mightier than He shall now 

" Sit in the perilous # seat ! The hour is big 

" With portents of eventful time. Arise, 

" First of thy sex, upon whose brow must shine 340 

" The diadem of glory ! Thou art call'd 

" To be the highest, as thou art most fair." 

The tempter ceased ; and full the snow-white orbs 
Of that proud damsel's bosom throbb'd and heaved 
With passions manifold ; impatient fires, 345 

That, smouldering in retirement, now burst forth ; 
Vain-glory, flatter'd by insidious praise ; 
Indomitable thirst of pomp and power. 
" Speak on, thy daughter heareth," with low voice 
Tremulous she murmur' d. Sure of purpose he 350 

His guile pursued. " The age of promise dawns 
" Upon the nations : from the cloud-capt brow 
" Of Cretan Ida have the gathering f Jews 
" Heard voices strange and holy, such as once 
" Thunder'd from Sinai, when the law was first 355 

" To man reveal'd by Moses. He, foretold 
" To come hereafter in the mighty spirit 
" Of that famed legislator, shakes the fanes 
" Of the great harlot, septimontane Rome. 
" Honoria, thou art call'd from holy walls 360 

" To be that great one's bride, and sit enshrined 
" In godlike pomp on the Tarpeian. Send 
" Fast pledges of thy love to him who wields 

* Concerning the siege perileux, see Hist, treat. §. 73. t See § 24. 



BOOK IV. 91 

" The flail,* wherewith the nations must be purged, 
" Imperial Attila ; and bid him claim 365 

" Half of Rome's having for thy dower. That done, 
" Wait silent the almighty march of time." 

This said, his form wax'd glorious ; youth divine 
Came like a sunbeam o'er his brow, from which 
Dark hyacinthine tresses waving shook 370 

Ambrosial incense, odours breathing love. 
As whilom, from the bath of Gadara, 
The f wizard in Decapolis call'd up 
The blooming Anteros, and sudden he 
Rose dripping hot, and shook his raven locks 375 

Luxuriant, and by Eros golden-hair'd 
Equal in beauty stood. So look'd the fiend, 
While the new lustre, which inform'd his eyes, 
Spoke things unutterable. With fragrant lips 
Voluptuous, he upon her willing mouth 380 

Planted a glowing kiss, from which inhaled 



* Attila's title flagellum Dei perhaps meant the flail, rather than the 
scourge, of God. See Matth. hi. 12. " Whose fan is in his hand, and 
he will thoroughly purge his floor," &c. 

t Jamblichus, born at Chalcis in Coelosyria, being at the warm baths 
of Gadara, and a conversation having arisen between him and others 
who were bathing, he bid them ask the country people how two of the 
smaller, but more pleasant, founts were named from of old ; they said the 
one was called Eros, and the other Anteros. He forthwith, handling 
the water and uttering a few words, called up from the bottom of the 
first, a boy, who was white, of moderate size, with golden hair, shining 
back and breast, and looked like one who had been just bathing. He 
then led the way to the other fount with an air of meditation, and doing 
the same there, he called up another boy with glossy black hair. They 
both clung to him and embraced him, as if he had been their natural 
father — Eunapius Vita Jambl. 



9*2 ATTILA. 

Shot sinful ardours to her inmost soul ; 

Then, vanishing in one bright stream of light, 

Soar'd as a meteor over Pindus ; thence 

Passing Dyrrachium, o'er the Hadrian flood 385 

Sail'd like a nebulous wrack, which seen afar 

Bodes tempest. Lighting from his airy course 

He floated in a blazing dream of pride 

Before thine eyes, Aetius, and recall'd 

Mysterious prophecies of glory, breathed 390 

Over thy cradle, which foretold that thou 

Shouldst be some great one, by the signs e'en then 

Portended to the nations. The fell Prince 

With bland deception whisper'd to thine heart 

Inaction, faithless to thy country's hope, 395 

And traitorous counsels (to delude thy lord) 

Of flight to Gaul, while thou into the seat 

Of Rome's imperial sway shouldst stride secure, 

Coiling the purple round thee, and upheld 

By dark fraternity of pagan arms. 400 

Nor long the arch-betrayer there delay'd, 

Confiding, that his scatter'd seed would spring, 

In that congenial soil, to ready growth ; 

But left him to the evil powers, which ay 

Glided around his couch, Ambition, Pride, 405 

And double-tongued Hypocrisy, and Sin 

Wreathing her brows with beauty counterfeit. 

Nor long, ere, speeding his angelic course, 

Before Rome's venerated pontiff stood 

The fiend, with spiritual glory bright. 410 

The marble domes of the great city lay 

Below them steep'd in silence, and the eye 

Of thoughtful Leo dwelt on those huge fanes, 






BOOK IV. 93 

Where the Christ's symbol, late exalted, shone ; 

And care sat heavy on his mitred brow. 415 

Then thus the Evil one ; " Thou deemest right, 

" Sage prelate ! o'er the immortal town e'en now 

" Unseen, unheard, with dark and noisome wing 

" The desolation hangs. Hopeless alike 

" The eagle and the labarum must bow 420 

" Before the scourge of fate. New glories dawn, 

" And other altars, other fanes, must rise 

" Terrific to the Fearful one. Bow down 

" And worship, mortal pre-ordain'd by Time 

" To wield the Dark one's hierarchal sway !" 425 

" There is one God, one Saviour, and one Spirit ;" 
(Replied the pontiff) " to Him Leo's knee 
" Bends daily, whether o'er the domes beneath 
" Heaven's angel showers its wrath, or whispers joy. 
" There is no fearful one to who, upraised 430 

" Above earth's fleeting pomp, beholds the throne 
" Where mercy radiates, and whose God is love." 

To him the power malign. " If Israel's God 
" Be merciful, why bend the feeble knee, 
" Why stretch the suppliant arms to who is love ? 435 
" Say, thou eschew'st his law, is good less good, 
" Mercy less mercy ? can # the goodly tree 



* For the tenets of the Marcionites expressed in this speech, see Ter- 
tullian adv. Marc. 1. i. c. 2. Marcion huilt his doctrine that there were 
two Gods, the Creator whom we worship, and his own evil God, on the 
words of St. Luke, " A good tree bringeth not forth corrupt fruit," (\'\. 43.) 
inferring that evil could not proceed from the good Being ; in answer to 
which see the express declaration of Isaiah, xlv. 7. " I form the light, 
and create darkness ; I make peace, and create evil. I the Lord do 
these things." 



94 ATTILA. 

' Bear evil fruit ? Are the unchanging thoughts 

6 Of infinite perfection turn'd to ill, 

' Because man sports in his licentious hour 440 

6 Of brief existence ? Man, fit worm to change 

( The spirit immutable of Him benign 

' Unto its opposite ! Good showers from Him 

' Alike upon the just and the unjust, 

4 His necessary boon. Weak mortal, bow 445 

6 Unto the king of terrors, who hath power, 

6 Nor lacks the will, to work thee deadly harm ; 

6 Whose blessings are free gifts, and won from hate 

4 By service and submission. Warbled hymns 

6 May lull the merciful throne, but deeds must soothe 450 

6 The fearful one ; dark sacramental rites, 

( Which angels dare not look on, fitly deem'd 

* To them abomination. Seal in blood 

i The compact, which shall make thee wise and great ! 

6 Then, when the Hun thro' these devoted walls 455 

< Shall wade knee-deep in blood, exalted thou 

{ Shalt stand in glory next the chosen. Long years, 

< Unchanging youth, and vigour to enjoy 

4 Sensual delights, fresh unexhausted bliss, 
6 My power shall yield thee ; and, not least, the mind's 460 
' Triumphal joy, pride gratified and full ; 
While sacerdotal glories over all 
Shall throw the robe of sanctity. The day 
Pre-ordinate in heaven, ere infant Time 
From the primeval womb of darkness sprang, 465 

Comes striding like a giant ; and these domes, 
Immortal deem'd by men, must like a scroll 
Be wasted and consume ; while Antichrist 
Upon the sevenfold hills shall sit reveal'd." 



BOOK IV. 95 

" O trusty guide and sure," (good Leo cried) 470 
" To man benighted ! who in heaven's day-beam, 
" Amid transcendent brightness, couldst not save 
" Thyself and thy compeers ; but didst exchange 
" Supreme beatitude for endless wo ! 
" When in the prophet's mouth thou didst become 475 
" A lying spirit, and lead Israel's # king 
" To fall at Ramoth-gilead, didst thou hear 
" The rumour, which should turn the f Syrian back, 
" And see the chariots of unearthly fire 
" Reveal'd unto his servant by the seer 480 

" On Dothan's mountain, and the sons of Baal 
" Cut short in their idolatries, beside 
" His bloody fane ? When o'er the saint | in Uz, 
" Thy spite invoked the heaven-permitted plagues, 
" Didst thou foreknow, that all thy malice, spent 485 
" Upon his patient brow, would but exalt 
" God's praise, and on his pious forehead pour 
" A brighter flood of blessedness ? When thou 
" Didst tempt thy Lord to bow and worship thee, 
" Didst thou anticipate thine own rebuke, 490 

" And to His glory ministering see 
" Angels descend? When from the firmament 
" A star, once glorious, headlong thou didst fall, 
" Had wisdom to thy subtle thoughts foretold 
" Thy baffled power, unable to confront 495 

" The name of Christ? did knowledge to thine eyes 
" Foreshew the darksome gulph, where thou hast lain 
" Exiled from heaven ? or hadst thou read amiss 
" God's oracles, to thine eternal loss? 



* 1 Kings xx. 21. + Benhadad. J Job. 



yb ATTILA. 

" Who now, as clear from error, as from guilt, 500 

" Divinest the counsels of the Holiest ! 

" Weak howsoe'er man's wisdom to unveil 

" The will almighty, by His word reveal'd 

" This Leo knows. There are three Powers, yet One, 

" That bear record in heaven, omnipotent, 505 

" The Father, the Redeemer, and the Spirit, 

" Girt with angelic ministers. Save Him, 

" There is no God ; darkness and light are His ; 

" He hath made good * and evil; by His will 

" Three names, Accuser, Adversary, Prince, 510 

" Are written upon one f accursed brow, 

" Three names of blasphemy. So walk thou still 

" Pre-eminent, amid the host of sin, 

" Thrones and dominions, evermore debarr'd 

" From the Lamb's presence ; free to tread this world 515 

" Of trials and temptation, where their wiles 

" Permitted for a season, shall invade 

" Man's walk, not unresisted by the Breath 

" Proceeding from the Highest, able to save 

" When from the heart invoked with prayer and praise. 520 

* Isaiah xlv. 5 — 7. 

t The faulty translation of the New Testament has given veiy erro- 
neous notions of that mysterious being. He is one individual, and the 
word diabolos or devil is never used in the plural. Whenever the plural, 
devils, occurs in the English, it is not diaboloi in the original, but 
daimonia, demons ; and demons should in every instance be substituted 
for devils. What was the exact nature of the demons, who were said to 
believe and tremble, and to possess themselves of distempered bodies, 
we are not informed, but they were not that evil individual, who is some- 
times called Satan or the adversary, sometimes the devil or accuser, and 
sometimes the prince of this world or of the power of darkness. 



BOOK IV. 97 

" Rome, and her worldly pomp, may pass away 

" As other empires, and the church be led 

" Captive to a strange land, like those, whose harps 

" Beside the Babylonian waters hung 

" Silentious ; but that edifice, which Christ 525 

" Built on a rock, for ever shall endure 

" One and unchangeable. The gates of Hell 

" Shall not prevail against it. Great is the worth 

" In mercy's eye of good, however scant ; 

u When fire rain'd down from heaven, had ten just men 

" Found shelter in the cities of the plain, 

" They might have stood, and Jordan wound his way 

" Into the bosom of his native earth 

" As pure and wholesome, as his limpid fount 

" In Lebanon ; while two or three remain 535 

" Still faithful in the church, even * the knees 

" Which have not bow'd to Baal, the Lord shall be 

" Amongst them, and the fire-tongued Paraclete 

" Shall dwell within its everlasting walls. 

" To Him I turn me ; by that holy aid 540 

" I do adjure thee, evil spirit, fly !" 

He said, and on his brow majestic beam'd 
The sunshine of his soul. To him in scorn 
The baffled fiend ; for, thus adjured with might, 
Deceitful beauty left him, and he stood, 545 

Though fierce and unabash'd, of glory shorn, 
Leprous, deform'd. " Raise orisons," he cried, 
" To Him who sleepeth, and must needs be roused 
" To look on His creation ! At noon day 
" Light tapers, to outshine His glorious sun ! 550 

* 1 Kings xix. 18. 
H 



98 ATTILA. 

" March on, sleek prelates, till your bloated pride 

" Grasp at the world's dominion, and for gold 

" Sell, what unpurchased to my slaves I yield, 

" Indulgence bland, and license to achieve 

" All the sweet works of sin. The time is nigh, 555 

" When neither praise upon these hills, nor prayer, 

" Shall, uncorrupted, rise to Judah's God. 

" Hypocrisy, with all the host of Hell, 

" Shrouded beneath the hierarchal robe 

" Shall nestle, and the goatish foot tread down 560 

" Meek Chastity to earth. Vain priest, survey 

" Thy native Europe! where the pagan fanes 

" Lie desolate, e'en now new idols rise. 

" Meet creed ! meet calendar of men * baptized ! 

" Saint Hercules defend thee, man of God ! 565 

" Say paternosters at the Christian shrine 

" Of Mars the murderer sanctified ! or him 

" Hight Cappadocian f George, whose red right hand 

" Guides, mid the crash of arms, the dragon car 

" Of thundering Triptolemus ; nor least 570 

" To him f of Erin, whose mysterious name 

" Prepares the way of Antichrist ! The blood, 

u The very bones of martyrs are grown Gods, 

" Thronging the star-paved domes, usurping heaven. 



* The pernicious practice of the eai'ly ages in compounding with the 
unconverted heathens by sanctifying their tutelary and provincial Gods, 
and dedicating their temples to martyrs with similar names, as for 
instance, the temple of the God Belis or Felis to St. Felix, sometimes 
called St. Felus, at Aquileia, and of Flora to St. Floranus at Brescia, 
whereby the pagan superstitions were engrafted on Christianity, was 
a primary cause of the corruption of the church of Rome. 

t St. George. t St. Patrick. 



BOOK IV. 99 

" Bend, pious suppliant, bend the faithful knee 575 

" To hell's best symbol, my own rosy cross, 

" Type of that antique fosse, where damned shades 

" Sipp'd nightly, frothing to its brim, the dew 

" Of human sacrifice ! In cloister'd halls 

" Beneath pride's panoply secure, strange priests 580 

" Forbidding * wedlock, but in private hours 

" Wedded to all incontinence, shall gorge 

" The sacrament of sin, by Manes given 

" To all that darkling worship Erebus 

" Under the Christ's similitude. For each 585 

" A beardless page shall bear his red-cross shield, 

" A sign from Calvary ; but their inward vest 

" Broider'd shall hide the chisel, adze, and saw, 

" Compass and square, and all the various tools 

" That rear'd the offensive mount on Sennaar's plain. 590 

" Pass on, where fate shall lead, my well-beloved, 

" Than whom more pious worshippers ne'er served 

" Nature in f Lampsacus ! The Gaul shall foil 

" Your luxury and pomp ; yet shall ye wait 

" Veil'd by deception, and in secret dens 595 

" Hold close fraternity ; till I and mine 

" With miracles to battle shall collect, 

" In J Armageddon, all the kings of earth." 

While in the just man's ear the angelic voice 
Yet rang, the Prince had vanish'd; and, as once 600 
Upon the bestial herd, which driven amain 
Plunged headlong mid the Galilean § waves, 



* Marriage was forbidden by Marcion. See Tertullian adv. Marc. 1. 1. 
Marcion was a native of Pontus, and son of a Christian bishop. 

t Famous for its impure idolatries, and worship of Priapus. 
t Rev. xvi. 14 and IG. § Luke viii. 33. 

TI 2 



100 ATTILA. 

Fell unresisted on the dark conclave 

Of Arian bishops. They demented swore 

Allegiance to the Hun, so to exalt 605 

The name of their heresiarch, and leagued 

With heathendom o'erthrow the goodly fold 

One and inseparable ; not * call'd of man, 

Cephas, or Paul, or that sage eloquent, 

Whose speech drew Corinth's wondering sons astray, 610 

Fervent in zeal A polios. Fools ! that took 

The precious words of everlasting life 

From mortal man, and named themselves of him, 

Whoe'er presumptuous wore the impious badge 

Of knowledge, worse than folly, and more vain, 615 

Arius, or Manes, or who raised f the head 

Of Babel's mighty hunter in the fold, 

Marcion the accurst ! Alas ! that still 

Schismatic zeal with various names the flock 

Leads diverse ! He, who cannot lie, hath said, 620 

A kingdom shall not stand, against itself 

Divided; and thy banners multiform 

Shew of what kingdom, and what spirit thou art, 

Conflicting Heresy ! the child of pride, 

The worm that saps the healthy tree, and gives 625 

Occasion to the foe ! Let all to Him, 

Who hath destroy'd the wisdom of the wise, 

And brought to nothing the disputer, bow, 

* See 1 Cor. i. and iii., where disunion in the church of Christ 
and adherence to the tenets of particular teachers are strenuously 
reproved. 

t Prudcntius states that the Charontean head of Nimrod was 
the evil God of Marcion. See above, v. 450, &c, and the notes 
thereon. 



BOOK IV. 



101 



Sworn to no mortal * leader ! and let all, 

Child of the virgin womb, be named of Thee, 630 

Christ, our salvation ! Plain are thy behests 

To those who with a sound and humble mind 

Obey them, nor deluded by such guides, 

As with presumptuous half-sighted pride 

Walk in a maze, and wrest the word of truth 635 

To their destruction, nor by passion led 

To lean upon a dead and hollow faith 

That doth not fructify ; for man is call'd 

To know himself unworthy, and by sin 

Encompass'd, from whose toils no issue is, 640 

Save thro' that holy aid, which is a light 

To guide thro' perils all who seek aright 

The narrow way of life ; to lift due praise 

To the Almighty, thro' that hallow'd name 

By which alone salvation is to man, 645 

His Saviour and his j udge ; to pray for help, 

In every trouble, and refreshment sure 

By that all-healing Spirit, which descends 

From the high throne of power, on all who seek 

Comfort from their Creator, and approach 650 

The seat of mercy thro' no other name 



* As the Marcionites, Arians, Manicheans, &c. adhered to the 
persons from whom they derived their respective denominations. The 
object of these lines is to assert the excellence of the doctrine of our 
establishment, (which adheres to the opinions of no earthly teacher, 
and repudiates every thing- as necessary to salvation, which cannot be 
proved from Scripture) the unfitness of disagreement amongst its 
members, of animosity against it on the part of sectarians, and exagge- 
ration of the differences between the several denominations of the 
Protestant church. 



Jo J 






102 ATTILA. 

Than that He hath ordain'd. This to believe, 

And this to do, and, having done, to stand 

Obedient, justified thro' righteous faith 

By Him, whose blood for this benighted world 655 

Hath made atonement, is the bread of life, 

Whereon, who feed, shall never taste of death ; 

And wo to those, or rather, as most need, 

Be mercy on their heads, whose worldly pride 

(Deluding their own hearts, and clothed with zeal, 660 

A specious mantle), mid the sons of Christ 

Upraise dividing banners, beacons new, 

To separate, amaze, perplex, mankind ! 

Be mercy upon those, whoever dive 

Too deeply into dark mysterious paths 665 

That do not profit, and with fearful voice 

Scare the repentant sinner from his God ! 

And Thou, Almighty Father, to whose throne 

We have access thro' Christ, unite thy sons, 

And hasten, Lord, thy kingdom ! Teach all those 670 

Who glorify thy name, sincere of heart, 

By whatsoe'er denomination call'd, 

That Thou didst never in thy church exalt 

Man against man ! O teach them to embrace 

Union of heart and worship ! Give thy sons 675 

Humility, of all the beauteous gems, 

That stud the coronet of Christian faith, 

The brightest and the best ! with which is link'd 

That which outweighs all gifts of human wit, 

Or subtle apprehension of things veil'd 680 

In mystery, and hard to be conceived; 

That which excels all knowledge, and all power 

That ever by the Spirit was vouchsafed 






BOOK IV. 103 

To thine elect, meek charity, which joins 

Heart unto heart, links faith with faith, and brings 685 

The lowly, justified by Him who died, 

Under the shadow of Thy mighty wing ! 



ATTILA 



BOOK FIFTH. 

Queen of the subject plain, where Danau's wave 

Rolls southward, swollen with Carpathian floods, 

Sicambria, sloping from her airy brow, 

Lords o'er Pannonia. Red with Bleda's death, 

And emulous of Rome, her walls had drunk 5 

A dire piation of fraternal # gore, 

Hell's sacrament. With pagan banners bright, 

And, bristling with defence, their mighty skirts 

Stretch'd even to the waters, which roll'd by 

Majestic, wafting to the stately halls 10 

Of far Byzantium the big threat of war. 

There, vex'd by Chalons' strife, the dreaded Hun 

Whetted his fangs, and, in his lair retired, 

Couch'd as a lion. Thence on either throne 

Defiance proud and brief his heralds threw; 15 

" Caesar, make smooth the way ! my lord and thine 

" Comes in his power !" He in Sicambria's hold 

Girt with Teutonic and Sclavonian kings 

Kept holyday secure. No marble domes 

There gorgeous frown'd ; no high triumphal piles 20 

With sculptured stone, cornice, or fretted arch, 

Told, how resistless on Hesperian realms 

* The brother of Attila, killed by him. 



BOOK V. 105 

The Hunnish deluge, from Aurora's bounds, 

Came sweeping. Of gigantic timber, roll'd 

Adown Tibiscus, from the leafy skirts 25 

Of Crapak, and Pannonia's utmost glens, 

Compact the vast metropolis arose, 

Simple, and huge. Within, the rifled wealth 

Of Europe vied with Asiatic spoils. 

There Tyrian purple glow'd, and lustrous robes 30 

From orient Sericana ; there outpour'd 

Sparkled the vintage of Tokayan hills 

In cups of massive gold ; Burgundian grapes 

Breathed odoriferous joy. There beauty's ray 

Half-smiling shone thro' tears ; the virgin flower 35 

From many a desolated realm, to deck 

A Scythian haram, torn ; Albanian locks 

Of wavy gold ; and radiant eyes, that shamed 

The blue serene of Persia's summer skies ; 

Arms whiter than their native Scandian snows, 40 

And the dark-kindling glance of amorous Spain, 

And cheeks soft-blushing, which outvied the rose 

Of southern Gaul : lips redolent of love 

Murmur'd delight, and song and music blazed 

Beneath each echoing roof; while the sweet fume 45 

From thousand boards, loaded with precious skill, 

Solicited the sense. Not he,* who, erst 

Alike in battle or the banquet's pomp 

Surpassing Pontic Mithridate, bereaved 

Each vocal thicket of night's lonely bird, 50 

Feasted more daintily. Attired in silk, 

Caparison'd with gold and jewels rare, 



* Lucullus. 



106 ATTILA. 

Sapphire or ruby, in his sumptuous stall 

Each Scythian charger neigh'd forejoying war, 

And lash'd his shining flank. Amid the blaze 55 

Of such luxurious splendour unadorn'd, 

The Hun abode amongst his subject kings 

Rejecting ease. A wooden platter bore 

His simple meal, the flesh of grazed beast ; 

But mightiest tower'd his palace, flank'd all round 60 

With arduous columns, each a stately pine 

From distant forests hewn ; their glossy trunks 

Shew'd beauteous, and rich capitals adorn'd 

Their airy summits, carved with forms grotesque. 

The walls were polish'd timber, quaintly wrought 65 

With deep * insculpture, and relieved by shapes 

In bold projection by a master's hand 

Moulded for ornament. Nor humblest rose, 

Nor least in glory, the majestic halls, 

Where royal Creca midst her female train 70 

Lay on a couch voluptuous ; they the while 

Upon a gorgeous carpet ranged around 

Broider'd the silken vest, or tissues rare 

Of Gallic loom. Hard by the regal towers 

The baths of Onegese alone display'd 75 

A marble front, in Sirmian quarries hewn 

Far southward. The full glory of the moonf 

Illumed the opening year, by Huns revered 

Long since in central Asia, where all night 

The heaven-born Tanjoo f watch'd its silver orb. 80 

Beneath that radiance in Sicambria's halls 



* Sec Hist, treatise, § 35. 
t Sec Dcs Guigncs torn. 1. pt. 2. p. 16 & 17. 



BOOK V. 107 

A solemn feast was spread. The awful Hun 

Severely silent on a throne of wood 

Sat on the dais exalted. By his side 

Stood Irnach, leaning on a Scythian bow, 85 

The hope of prophecy. With kindlier look 

Unbending his stern brow, the pensive king 

Regarded his young limbs and unshorn cheek. 

Four royal tributaries shared his meal, 

Valamer the Goth, and his two crown'd compeers, 90 

All from the blood of ancient Amal sprung, 

Robed in their scarlet pomp ; and Arderic, 

Gepidian king, whose crest of jetty plumes 

And coal-black mantle were the dread of Rome, 

Faithful and well-beloved, but doom'd to wrest 95 

The sceptre from his issue. Fitly ranged 

Below the imperial dais, in double row 

Abundant tables smoked, and gave the eye 

A lengthen'd view of silver and of gold, 

Spoil of the western cities, on the board 100 

Resplendent. Station'd at the portal wide 

Two seneschals, whose ministerial garb 

Norwegian bears and white zibellines gave, 

Bore golden bowls ; and each successive guest, 

Entering, from these upon the threshold quaff'd 105 

Pannonian wine, and prelibation made 

Hailing the king of kings ; then took the seat 

By rank assign'd, four at each smoking board, 

And sumptuous was the fare. Most honour'd they, 

Who on the right caroused. The pompous seats 1 10 

With linen of fine tissue were o'erlaid, 

And costliest carpets gave delicious ease, 

Refulgent with a thousand hues. To each 



108 ATTILA. 

(The precious chalice to his lips just raised) 

Uprising Attila pledged health and joy; 115 

Abstemious he, though wassail shook the hall. 

Anon to silence hush'd each gleeful sound 

Died on the lips, as rose the vocal strain 

Before the couch of Attila. Two bards 

Successive vied ; in accents wild and sweet 120 

First Scandian Eric sang. Thy strength he praised, 

Immortal Attila ! thy godlike power, 

By many a mystic title darkly veiFd, 

Odin, # or Sigurd ! and thy coat of steel 

With dread teraphim graved, the giant head 125 

From Mimer lopt, which gave responses dark ; 

The wondrous treasures of the serpent slain, 

And that terrific horse, nigh Bufil's f tarn 

Gender'd by Sleipner, (on whose mighty flanks, 

Ethereal, the great sire of Gods and men 130 

Rides thundering, and Gladsheim shakes beneath) 

Pale Grana, thro' bright flames and crackling fire 

Urged by thy prowess, but to other hands 

Untamed and breathing death. Great king of Danes, 

He told thy ways of mightiness, in thee 135 

The strength, the pride, the wonders of the north, 

* Sec Hist, treatise, $ 69 and 70. 
t Sigurd, (identical in Scandinavian legends with Attila) having gone 
into the forest to choose a wild horse, was conducted by an old man 
with a long beard to a lake called Bufil-tiorn, where they drove the 
herd of horses into the deep water. One alone could swim to the 
opposite bank, and him they selected. He was grey, young, of great 
size and strength. The old man told him it was the son of Sleipner, 
and then vanished. " Sigurd named it Grana, and it proved the best 
of horses, having been selected by Odin himself." Volsunga saga, 
r. 22. 



BOOK v. 109 

Concentrated ; then struck a louder string, 

And sung Valhalla, round the throne of light 

Where the brave rise to glory, where they join 

The eternal fight, and clash their radiant arms 140 

Of never-fading adamant, or joy 

The odoriferous drink on thrones of gold. 

The bard's eye kindled, and his voice, prolong'd 

In full harmonious ecstacy, swell'd high 

Unto the vaulted roof. Young Irnach twang'd 145 

His Scythian bow, and each chief rising smote 

The iron buckler with his gleamy brand, 

A wild accord. Preluding then began 

Arpad the Scythian, famed for tuneful art. 

Of olden times he told, of distant realms 1 50 

Beyond Maeotis, and the far abode 

Of those great Tanjoos on the lofty ridge, 

Whence Amur rushes to the utmost sea 

Against Saghalien, who on solemn days 

Descended from their mountains, to adore 155 

The sun at morn, the full-orb'd moon by night, 

In the vast plain of Tartary, supreme 

From Irtisch to the wave Aurora's beam 

First brightens. War and sorcery he sang, 

The clang of battle on the Chinese bounds, 1 60 

And those bold Avars overthrown, whose * khan 

With his intrepid chivalry fell flat 

Before the Hun's enchantment, tempest dark, 

Amazing storm, and arrowy shower of sleet, 

* The Geougen or Avars, whose khan was overthrown by the Huns, 
believed that the Huns could stir up supernatural tempests by enchant- 
ment. This was supposed to be effected by the power of a stone called 
Gczi. See Sherefeddin Ali, Hist. Tim. 1. 12. 



110 ATTILA. 

Raised by that stone miraculous, which draws 165 

Darkness and terror from the womb of heaven. 

Of Buddha's might he told : him oft the swain 

Hears nightly, on the bleak Riphean ridge . 

Goading his brazen car, (to earthly wheels 

A path impracticable) while his steeds 170 

Neigh thunder, and toss lightning from their manes ; 

Or, southward bending, he surmounts thy head, 

Imaus, crown 'd with everlasting snow, 

From Siam and the golden Chersonese 

Snuffing the blood of captives, from the woods 175 

Dark and untouch'd of Laos and Gamboge, 

Assam, and Ava, and lights with lurid fires 

A thousand altars in Taprobane. 

Then changed his strain to sing the palmy groves 

Of sweet Engaddi, Siddim's fairy vale, 1 80 

Where glitters on the bough that wondrous # fruit, 

Which, touch'd, in airy dust evanishes, 

Form'd for refreshment of the sprites that dwell 

In that strange wilderness. There nursed in joy 

He told how infant Attila reclined 185 

On his unearthly cradle. They unseen 

Shower'd fragrance, flowers of amaranthine hue, 

* Known by the name of Sodom apples, to which Milton alludes Par. 
Lost, x. 561. Josephus mentions them as dissolving into ashes and 
smoke at the first touch. Anselm (Descr. ter. sane. p. 1308. ed. Canisii) 
says, they grow on the ascent of the hill of Engaddi from Segor. 
Fulcherus Carnotensis saw the fruit at Segor. — Gest. Dei per Franc. 
Mr. Jolifte described them (Lett. fr. Palest. 1. 130) of a bright yellow, 
about the size of apricots, growing in clusters on a shrub five or six feet 
high, about half a mile from the plain of Jericho. They have lately been 
ascertained not to be really fruit, but oak-apples occasioned by an insect 
on a species of dwarf oak. 



BOOK V. Ill 

Upon his sleeping limbs, immerged with rites 

Mysterious in that sea, whose sullen flood 

Hides Admah and her * sisters; hence to man 190 

Invulnerable. Long and loud he sang 

Empire predestined to the wondrous child ; 

And, big with fate, already seemed to shake 

Rome's ramparts, and Byzantium's golden halls, 

Sounding the trump of fate. Next tuned his verse 195 

Marullus, f on Calabrian mountains sprung 

From blood of old % Messapus, near the shades 

* Gomorrha, Sodom, and Zeboiim. 

t Marullus the Calabrian, said to have been the most distinguished 
poet of his age, sung or recited a poem to Attila which excited his in- 
dignation, not however at his court in Pannonia, but during the Italian 
campaign. It can scarcely be doubted that he was the same person 
whose poem called Paraleipomena, being a continuation of the Iliad, has 
descended to us as written by Quintus the Calabrian, the only distin- 
guished poet of this period, to which his work is proved by peculiarities 
of style to be referable. He asserts that he fed Diana's flock at Smyrna, 
with evident allusion to a line in Hesiod, who says that he fed the 
lambs of the Muses ; and the Calabrian, in stating that he did so at 
Smyrna, meant to insinuate that the soul of Homer, the reputed bard of 
Smyrna, had passed into his body, and the name Quintus was perhaps 
also assumed with a reference to Quintus Ennius, the more ancient Cala- 
brian poet born at Kubise, and descended from king Messapus, who pre- 
tended also to have dreamt that the soul of Homer had passed into his 
body by a fifth incarnation. Moreri, and the French Encyclopaedists 
(following him) call the poet, who sung before Attila, Marullus Tacitus, 
without citing any authority for the latter name, which does not appear 
in any of the three editions of the historian Callimachus, or in any other 
work to which I have had access, though it is difficult to believe that 
Moreri invented it. If it can be authenticated, the name of the author 
of the Paraleipomena would seem to have been Quintus Marullus 
Tacitus. 

t Ennius antiqua Messapi ab origine regis. 

Rudite genuere vetustce. — Sil. Ital. xii. 393. 



112 ATTILA. 

Of Rudise to the muses dear, but (far 

From dark * Galesus and the f trickling caves 

Frequented by rude Pan, the cool resort 200 

Once of the coy Oreades) beside 

Maeonian Meles his unbearded youth 

Fed Dian's % flock in Smyrna, smit with love 

Of Jove's immortal maids : and thence emerged 

To tell of deeds heroic, left unsung * 205 

By the blind bard of Greece ; thy blood-stain'd limbs, 

Mavortian § queen, o'er which Cythera breathed 

Fresh charms in death, by fierce Achilles stripped, s 

Who saw too late around her unhelm'd brow 

The wavy ringlets fall. Marullus sung 210 

The ship of ancient days, || which breasted first 

Cimmerian billows, by the serpent % steer'd, 

Iolcan pine,** and from its holy keel 

* Qua niger humectat flaventia culta Galesus. — Virg. G. 4. 126. 

t Messapiaque arva reliquit, 

In quibus antra viclet, quae multa nubila sylva 

Et levibus guttis manantia semicaper Pan 

Nunc tenet, at quodam tenuerunt tempore Nymphee. 

Ovid. Met. xiv. 11. 
\ Quintus Calaber, Lib. xii. 306. 

§ Penthesilea. See the account of her death in Quintus Calaber. 

|| The ship Argo. The Argonautics of Orpheus are also referable to 
the age of Attila, and have very much the appearance of having been 
written to amuse the court of a Northern heathen, from the passage 
which is attributed to the ship thro' the Baltic by a circuitous course to 
the Mediterranean. 

11 The serpent Caneph or Canopus steered the ship Argo, and is the 
star at its helm in the constellation. Tiphys the pilot, mentioned by 
Apollonius Rhodius, seems to be a corruption of the Greek Ophis a ser- 
pent with the article prefixed. 

** SeeOrph. Argon. 1155. It was built of Iolcan pine, but the keel 
was of oak from Dodona, and had the gift of speech and prophecy. 
Zrtipav AOr/vairi Aujcuvidog typfiotrt tyqyou.—Ap. lihod. 1. 527. 



BOOK V. 113 

Emitted mystic sounds, prophetic strains. 

He sang its passage thro' the unplough'd seas 215 

To outer darkness, where Riphaean snows 

And # Phlegra, towering with its giant head, 

Preclude the sun ; beyond the golden sands, 

Which Arimaspians lave ; beyond the realm 

Of beauteous Amazons, succinct for war ; 220 

And those far-famed Macrobians, who live 

Twelve thousand years, each wondrous month prolong'd 

A hundred summers, free from strife or cares, 

And, stretch'd upon the fragrant meadow, taste 

Ambrosia dropt from heaven ; serene they shine 225 

With equal beauty and unalter'd bloom, 

And, when death comes at last, in gentle sleep 

They sink unheeding. Past those realms of bliss 

Miraculous, thro' deep Cimmerian night 

Shaping its course, where green Ierne breaks 230 

The Atlantic billows, to the columns huge 

Of Hercules, and fair Hesperia ; past 

iEolian Cymae, where the Sybil's leaves 

Were strewn, divine futurities. " E'en now 

" The last great period of Cymsean song 235 

M Comes in its glory. Lo ! a present God ! 

" A present God !" the nattering Roman cried ; 

tc Triumphant offspring of Olympic Jove, 

" Greater than Bacchus, hail ! Shout CEvoe thrice ! 

" Awake the thiasus, and round his brow 240 

" Bind ivy, bind the Dionysian vine !" 

Him straight the Hun cut short. " Blasphemer,f cease ! 

* See Orph. Arg. for this and the following traditions, 
t Most of the writers who have related this anecdote, have stated it 
as if Attila repudiated divine honours ; in the account of Palladio alone, 

X 



114 ATTILA. 

" Bear him to death ! Thy song pollutes our ears 

" With praise of orgies loathed, and the foul Gods 

" Of Greece and Rome. The Fearful one, ne'er seen, 245 

" Who, making darkness his pavilion, dwells 

" With Chaos # and Eternity, is God ; 

" Attila his scourge on earth." Sternly he spoke 

Rejecting adulation, nor endured 

Similitude with Bacchus ivy-crown'd, 250 

By Scythians most abhorr'd, and ever spurn'd 

False honours, mocking his exalted state ; 

Though proud to name himself the scourge of Him, 

Whose spirit, arbiter of mortals, dwelt 

In his terrific sword. Praise, such as slaves 255 

Warbled to Rome's soft Caesars, on his ear 

Fell hateful, but submission lull'd his wrath. 

A kindlier sign he made, that fatal doom 

Suspending, and two motley forms advanced, 

Natures debased, making unseemly mirth 260 

With license, such as greatness yields to fools, 

When cloy'd with joyless pomp. Of Moorish blood 

Swart Zeucon, hideous, short, with misshaped limbs, 

Waked the hoarse laugh, oft mingling shallow jests 

With horrible contortions. Nor less vain 265 

A Scythian of strong limbs, with dexterous sleight, 

Rude noise, and fearful adjurations, feign'd 

it appears that the offence was that he celebrated Attila as a descendant 
of the Gods, meaning undoubtedly the Gods of Greece and Rome. 
Herodotus tells us that the Scythians put to death their king Scylas for 
joining in the rites of Bacchus, which they held in abomination. It is 
remarkable that Palladio calls the poet Attilano Marullo, which seems 
to imply that he had borne the surname of Attilanus, for the idiom of the 
language would not allow the use of Attilano so prefixed as an adjective. 
* See Boccacio Genealog. d. Dei. 



BOOK V. 115 

Power more than human, tho' degraded low 

Beneath his fellow men. Unmoved the king 

Hears the hall ring with mixt applause and scorn. 270 

The feast was ended; glaring light no more 
Vied with the silver moonlight ; when toil-worn 
A muffled eunuch, from Byzantium's court, 
Admission craved. A ring of precious ray 
To Attila, and next a scroll he gave 275 

Traced by a feminine and skilful hand ; 
Thus ran its secret style. " In prime of youth 
" Honoria, daughter of Constantius, greets 
" The royal Hun ! A brother's wrong withholds 
" Her birthright, half Rome's empire ; and immured, 280 
" A barren victim, in Pulcheria's cell, 
" Unheard, unpitied, unrevenged, she sighs. 
" Her hand she tenders, king of men, to thee, 
" With all that appertaineth. Claim thy bride, 
" And take her to thy throne of majesty." 285 

This read, short space he mused. Honoria's charms 
Were rare and widely famed, fit to adorn 
His oft replenish'd harem. The proud claim 
To half Rome's power, the dowry of his bride, 
Squared with his high demands, and firm resolve 290 
To seize the whole. Courteous assent he gave 
By princely gifts confirm'd. Then with the dawn 
Dispatch'd his challenge for the beauteous hand 
Of that sequester'd damsel, and her rights 
Without subtraction of one paltry rood, 295 

Half of the wide domain Rome's ample sway 
Held subject ; with the earliest blush of spring 
Determinate his purpose, to invade 
Italia's pleasant vales, the fruitful banks 

i 2 



116 ATTILA. 

Of Tiberis, and snatch the mural crown 300 

Twelve hundred summers worn. Meanwhile strange fame 

Ran thro' Byzantium, murmur'd first, and low, 

Amongst her holy dames ; then bruited wide, 

Till, rife upon the tongues of bearded men 

Thro' all her marble walks, Honoria's guilt 305 

Spread fiery indignation and amaze. 

Pulcheria, who had raised a * husband's strength 

To share the throne imperial, but denied 

Marital access to her virgin bed, 

With angry taunting and reproachful scorn 310 

Bespoke the damsel thus. " O Satan's child, 

" Nurtured in sin, and form'd thus fair perchance 

" To be thy country's bane ! Have lengthen'd years 

" Of penance only harden'd thee in ill ? 

" The leprous taint of thy first guilty love 315 

" Clings to thee, working in these holy bowers 

" Unheard pollution, sin against the Highest ; 

" Sin unconsummated, but gender'd deep 

" In thy corrupted heart, which would betray 

" Thy body, temple of God's holy Spirit, 320 

" To Moloch and his chosen upon earth, 

" Grim Attila. O shame to womankind ! 

" Sin hath been done ere now, and beauty sunk 

" Under soft blandishments, by fatal charms 

" Beguiled to its perdition; but this man 325 

" Terrific is in mind and mien deform'd, 

" Hell's dread vicegerent." Blushing loveliness, 

With tremulous speech the guilty fair replied. 

" If it be evil, nor unmoved, nor cold, 

* Marcian. 



BOOK V. 117 

" To gaze on God's creation ; those green hills, 330 

" Where the mild breeze of freedom ever blows, 

" To me denied; and that majestic sea 

" Sparkling beneath, which one while, chafed with winds, 

" Swells as it would o'er-top them ; one while, spread 

" Like a pure mirror of serenest blue, 335 

" Gives back their aspect in smooth peacefulness, 

" Image of varied life, which Heaven ordain'd 

" To be the lot of mortals ; if it be ill 

" To deem His gifts of beautiful or sweet 

" Created for the use ; Honoria's heart 340 

" Hath err'd, responsive to the voice, that speaks 

" From all His works. Did He, who form'd the eye, 

" Forbid it to look forth on the fair shapes 

" Which He has fashion' d, to delight the soul 

" Thro' that bright inlet ? He, who made the heart, 345 

" Deny its pulse to throb ? He, who has breathed 

" The fresh prolific spring, of power to wake 

" All nature, with a seraph's ministry, 

" From the dull couch of winter ! He, who bade 

" The lavrock carol his o'erflowing bliss 350 

" Up to the gates of heaven ! give youthful bloom, 

" Not unadorn'd with such brief attributes 

" As charm the sense, to be immured unseen, 

" Joyless and unenjoy'd, in living death ? 

" A witness breathes in every genial wind ! 355 

" The day, the morn, the dewy fall of night, 

" Has each its several voice, that utters speech 

" Gone forth unto the uttermost parts of earth 

" To do His bounteous bidding ! to declare, 

" That what He freely showers upon his works 360 

" Should, to His glory, be as freely used ! 



1 18 ATTILA. 

" Not grandeur, tho' the blood of Caesar beat 

" In these full veins, not frail desires have turn'd 

" My heart to heathendom, but tedious hours, 

" Nocturnal orisons, and vigils cold, 365 

" To which the worst varieties of life 

" Were as a devious garden, set with thorns, 

" But breathing joy." " Short joy," the imperial dame 

Rejoin'd, "and odious. From Ravenna's court 

" Exiled by Valentinian, thou. didst bring 370 

" The tainted rumour of illicit love 

" A prisoner to Byzantium. Here, received 

" By me into this cloister, thou hast led 

" A placid life retired, not without prayer 

" To who can make the scarlet of thy guilt 375 

" Whiter than snow. But thou, to evil sold, 

" In this pure solitude hast made the word 

" A stumbling-block for sin. The senate's voice 

" Hath judged thee, and thy sentence Marcian dooms 

" Unchangeable. The barque with strutting sails 380 

" Rides on the water, which must waft thee back 

" In riper youth dishonour'd to the shores, 

" Whence vile dishonour sent thine earlier bloom 

" Ejected. There in some close dungeon's vault, 

" Where this vain world, thine idol, never more 385 

" Stirring rank thoughts shall dawn upon thee, wake 

" From this thy carnal dream, and muse in tears 

" Upon eternity, and that dread trump 

" Which must arouse thee, from death's narrow housed 

" Unto thy latest and unchanging doom. 390 

There is a tide, which, taken at the flood, 
Leads man to fortune ; there are moments too, 
On which no glorious swell of worldly pomp, 



BOOK V. 119 

No earthly promise waits, but mightier far 

Eternity. A word, an eye-blink oft 395 

Has turn'd the most benighted of mankind 

To orient hopes, and, like a sudden flash 

In the night-storm, bewray'd the narrow path 

To his immortal weal. Severe she ceased, 

But to the chiding of her bitter speech 400 

Reply was none ; the damsel stood rebuked, 

Like man's original mother, when she first 

Knew she was naked, and the voice of God 

In paradise upon her startled ear 

Fell terrible, of that forbidden fruit 405 

Demanding, which sore tempted she had pluck'd. 

So lovely, so abash'd, Honoria heard 

The judgment; and soon, rudely circled round 

By armed force, upon the Grecian prow 

Hopeless she sat, a captive; or, if hope 410 

Dawn'd on her heart, it was a distant beam 

From those blest regions, where her lustful youth 

Had never bent the soul's deluded eye. 

Pensive she view'd the deep, whose clear blue waves 

Heaved beauteous, softly as from Chalcedon came 415 

The balmy breeze ; adown Propontis smooth, 

By Sestos and Abydos, glided slow 

The lightsome barque with every canvass spread; 

Seen from Caphareus far beneath the sun, 

Like a bright sea-mew, on the azure way 420 

Threading the Cyclades. Nor long before, 

Coasting Cythera to the queen of loves 

Late sacred, they descried the rocky caves 

Of Tsenarus, where poets feign the gates 

Of gloomy Dis ; thence bounding o'er the deep 425 



120 ATTILA. 

Ionian to thy shores right opposite, 

Brundusium, close beneath the leafy brow 

Of high Garganus steer, and sailing fast 

Approach Ravenna, near whose stately towers, 

Eridanus, thine ample torrent chafes 430 

The fretful Hadrian. Who, O who, hath view'd, 

Untouch'd with rapture, those sun-lighted seas, 

Fancy's primeval cradle ! where each rock, 

Each hoary headland breasting back their foam, 

Each mountain's glorious summit, with the voice 435 

Of other times, speaks music to the heart ; 

Waking once more the notes, attuned of old 

At Elis to the touch of golden lyres, 

And oft at rocky Pytho, when the bard 

Of Greece upon the laurel'd victor breathed 440 

Immortal inspirations ! Who hath look'd 

On those bright islands in the iEgean deep, 

Famed Athens, or thy huge # Cyclopean gate, 

Mycenae ! nor from each time-honour'd shore 

Felt breezes redolent of glory blow ! 445 

Mournful and mute upon the prow reclined 

Honoria, gazing with unalter'd brow 

Upon the glassy billows, as they lay 

By golden sun-light or serener beams 

Of silvery night illumed ; but all en r need 450 

Her thoughts were in Ravenna's gorgeous halls, 

Where she had trod on purple, in the spring 

Of her just budding charms, listening to sighs 

By infant love unto her willing heart 

• Kuk\u)7T(a)v Kavovioai 7repi%(i)c$tl(ra MuKrjprj. 
The nate of Cyclopean blocks of stone without mortar is said to be still 
standing sit Myccna 1 . 



BOOK V. 121 

Soft whisper'd. Joys, once reap'd in guilt, now came 455 

With bitterness o'er her spirit, and the dread 

Of endless penance, solitary and dark, 

Treason's just retribution. Soon she treads 

Once more her native Italy, forlorn, 

A fetter'd captive, while Placidia's son * 460 

Stands far aloof, and fulmines from the throne 

Eternal condemnation. Black as night 

The dungeon in Ravenna*s dismal keep, 

Where thus, secluded from the genial beam 

And lost in hopeless cogitation, sat 465 

The fairest form of Italy, whose smile 

In early youth exuberant with joy 

Lit her voluptuous palaces, and gave 

Distinction with proud thoughts to whomsoe'er 

Its favours beam'd upon. Two sentinels 470 

In iron armour cased, dim torches held 

Before the portal. On her lily cheek 

The sullen lustre glared. A fatal draught, 

Hemlock or atropa, beside her placed 

Excluded hope ; one hand was on the bowl 475 

Irresolute : the other propp'd her brow, 

From which neglected the bright ringlets stream'd 

On her white bosom, which heaved strong and slow. 

Beside her stood in hierarchal robes 

Ravenna's priest ; two damsels tired in white 480 

Seem'd bridemaids, listening for the nuptial vow 

In that sepulchral chamber. One time-blanch'd, 

With sunken orbs, that told the visual ray 

Extinguish'd, nigh the beauteous victim stood, 

* Her brother, the emperor V&leutinian. 



122 ATTILA. 

And with decrepid hand a bridal ring 485 

Held tremulous. A coffin opposite 

Stood open, deck'd with snow-white silk within, 

Upon whose upper face the eye might read 

" Honoria, daughter of Constantius," wrought 

In characters of gold. A gloomy fosse 490 

Yawn'd thro' the floor, where stood two shapes succinct 

For their funereal labours, and prepared 

To render dust to dust. No sound disturb'd 

The awful pause, while with uncertain eye 

Honoria, sad and motionless, survey'd 495 

The terrible alternative. Thus will'd 

Hard Valentinian, to a sister's guilt 

Relentless ; instant death, and in that vault 

Oblivious inhumation ; or the choice 

Of hymeneal bonds with one abhorr'd, 500 

Too feeble o'er the imperial throne to cast 

Umbrage and fear, or from that fair one claim 

Connubial rights ; and, after those mock vows, 

Perpetual durance in Ravenna's cell, 

A living burial. Despairing thrice 505 

The deadly bowl she lifted, and thrice stopp'd 

Appall'd, and quite unequal to confront 

The dim and unforeseen futurity. 

Slowly at length with no consenting will, 

And eyes averse, she stretch'd her beauteous hand 510 

To that detested bridegroom, and received 

The nuptial blessing, to her anguish'd heart 

Worse than a malediction. Then burst forth 

Grief impotent. Grasping the forbidden bowl 

Frantic she strove for what she late refused, 515 

That baneful drink ; and, baffled, cast her limbs 



BOOK V. 123 

Into the loathsome grave, imploring death. 

What art thou, O relentless visitant, 
Who, with an earlier or later call, 

Dost summon every spirit that abides 520 

In this our fleshly tabernacle ! Death ! 
The end of worldly sorrowing and joy, 
That breakest short the fantasies of youth, 
The proud man's glory, and the lingering chain 
Of hopeless destitution ! the dark gate 525 

And entrance into that untrodden realm, 
Where we must all hereafter pass ! Art thou 
An evil, or a boon ? that some shrink back 
With shuddering horror from the dreaded marge 
Of thine unmeasured empire, others plunge 530 

Unbidden, goaded by the sense of the ill, 
Or weariness of being, into the abyss ! 
And should we call those blest, who journey on 
Upon this motley theatre, thro' life 
Successful, unto the allotted term 535 

Of threescore years and ten, even so strong, 
That they exceed it ? or those, who are brought down 
Before their prime, and, like the winged tribes 
Ephemeral, children of the vernal beam, 
Just flutter round the sweets of life and die ? 540 

An awful term thou art, and still must be, 
To all who journey to that bourne, from whence 
Return is none, and from whose distant shore 
No rumour has come back of good or ill, 
Save to the faithful ; and e'en they but view 545 

Obscurely things unknown and unconceived, 
And judge not even, by what sense the bliss, 
Which they imagine, shall hereafter be 



124 ATTILA. 

Enjoy 'd or apprehended. And shall man 

Unbidden rush on that mysterious change, 550 

Which, whether he believe, or mock the creed 

Of those who trust, awaits him, and must bring 

Or good or evil, or annihilate 

The sense of being, and involve him quite 

In darkness, upon which no dawn shall break ! 555 

Fearful and dreaded must thy bidding be 

To such as have no light within, vouchsafed 

From the Most High, no reason for their hope ; 

But go from this firm world, into the void 

Where no material body may reside, 560 

By fleshly cares polluted, and unmeet 

For spiritual joy ; and ne'er have known, 

Or, knowing, have behind them cast the love 

Of their Redeemer, who thine awful bonds, 

Grim Potentate, has broken, and made smooth 565 

The death-bed of the just thro' faith in Him. 

How oft, at midnight, have I fix'd my gaze 

Upon the blue unclouded firmament, 

With thousand spheres illumined, each perchance 

The powerful centre of revolving worlds ! 570 

Until, by strange excitement stirr'd, the mind 

Has long'd for dissolution, so it might bring 

Knowledge, for which the spirit is athirst, 

Open the darkling stores of hidden time, 

And shew the marvel of eternal things, 575 

Which, in the bosom of immensity, 

Wheel round the God of nature. Vain desire ! 

Illusive aspirations ! daring hope ! 

Worm that I am who told me I should know 

More than is needful, or hereafter dive 580 



BOOK V. 1*25 

Into the counsel of the God of worlds ? 

Or ever, in the cycle unconceived 

Of wonderous eternity, arrive 

Beyond the narrow sphere, by Him assign'd 

To be my dwelling wheresoe'er ? Enough 585 

To work in trembling my salvation here, 

Waiting thy summons, stern mysterious Power, 

Who to thy silent realm hast call'd away 

All those, whom nature twined around my heart 

In my fond infancy, and left me here 590 

Denuded of their love ! Where are ye gone, 

And shall we wake from the long sleep of death, 

To know each other, conscious of the ties 

That link'd our souls together, and draw down 

The secret dew-drop on my cheek, whene'er 595 

I turn unto the past ? or will the change 

That comes to all, renew the alter'd spirit 

To other thoughts, making the strife or love 

Of short mortality a shadow past, 

Equal illusion ? Father, whose strong mind 600 

Was my support, whose kindness as the spring 

Which never tarries ! Mother, of all forms 

That smiled upon my budding thoughts, most dear ! 

Brothers ! and thou, mine only sister ! gone 

To the still grave, making the memory 605 

Of all my earliest time, a thing wiped out, 

Save from the glowing spot, which lives as fresh 

In my heart's core, as when we last in joy 

Were gather'd round the blithe paternal board ! 

Where are ye ? must your kindred spirits sleep 610 

For many a thousand years, till by the trump 

Roused to new being ? Will old affections then 



126 ATTILA. 

Burn inwardly, or all our loves gone by 

Seem but a speck upon the roll of time, 

Unworthy our regard? This is too hard 615 

For mortals to unravel, nor has He 

Vouchsafed a clue to man, who bade us trust 

To Him our weakness, and we shall wake up 

After His likeness, and be satisfied. 



ATTILA. 



BOOK SIXTH. 

Sweet bird, that like an unseen spirit sing'st, 

When the rude winds are hush'd, the beaming glades 

Enrobed with tenderest verdure, and soft airs 

Breathe fragrance, stolen from the violet rathe ! 

Sweet angel of the year, that, ever hid 5 

In loneliest umbrage, pour'st thy thrilling strain 

By kindred warblings answer'd, till around 

With inborn melody the covert burns 

In all its deep recesses ! is thy song 

The voice of the young spring, that wakes to life 10 

This animated world of bright and fair ! 

Earth has no music like thy witching stores 

Of liquid modulation. In those tones 

Charm'd nature hath her lulling, not reclined 

In torpid sleep, but unto pleasure soothed. 15 

At thy delighting call each ice-clad stream 

Throws off its wintery slough, and glides along 

With sparkling lustre, as the snake rejects 

The scaly dress, wherein it lay benumb'd, 

And bright in renovated beauty wins 20 

Its slippery winding way ; with genial beam 

The sky relumes its radiance ; the smooth lake 

Glows like a mirror, in which Nature views 



128 ATTILA. 

Her various garb, adorn 'd with dewy herbs, 

And the fresh flowers, which gem the early year 25 

With springing loveliness, and promise give 

Of gorgeous and full-zoned maturity ; 

While, roused by thee from his late frozen couch, 

Love breathes anew, and his blythe mystery 

Fills every pulse with joy. Far other sounds 30 

Waked vernal echoes on thy trampled banks, 

Pannonia ! the rude clang of armed steeds, 

Bill-hook, and battle-axe, and twanging bow, 

Gave loud alarum ; while strange banners, high 

Exalted, o'er a hundred * nations waved ; 35 

And, issuing thro' Sicambria's gates to war, 

The Hunnish deluge stream'd. Weep, Italy, 

And tremble in thine holds ! With iron swoop, 

Fierce vindicator, gorged with Christian blood, 

Honoria's champion comes ; God's scourge, more fierce 40 

By thy denial. As when, winter-bound, 

The slope of some vast mountain, parch'd and frore, 

Hath slept long months in silence, save where howl'd 

The snow-storm round its peaks, or the rent ice 

Rang terrible thro' all its echoing glens ; 45 

By vernal zephyrs loosed the turbid streams 

Pour down its flank, and with one wasting flood 

O'erwhelm the vales beneath : so, pent long while 

By winter in his eyrie, now rush'd forth 

The desolating vulture crown'd with gold, 50 

Attila's dread standard. Danau's wave is pass'd, 

And gelid Savus, big with Carnian snows, 



* One hundred and eight nations marched with Attila, and he sent 
one thousand men from each to conquer the North. — Herming Geneal. 



BOOK VI. 129 

And Dravus swift. Illyria quakes with dread, 

And many a station, many a goodly town 

Wasted by ruthless conflagration smokes, 55 

Segnia's strong towers, and Jadera, that late 

Stood glorious by the bright Dalmatian wave, 

And Pola near the beach. iEmona lies 

An ashy heap, never to rear again 

Her head among the cities of the West ; 60 

Gorician wilds behold the vulture gleam 

In every rugged pass ; where, vain defence, 

Stood bristling o'er each mountain's deep defile 

The Roman steel. In vain the venal strength 

Of Alaric and sturdy Antal throng 65 

The narrow glens, Goth against Gothic sword 

And Hunnish bow. Disgorged, the barbarous war 

Comes, as a torrent, on the pleasant vale. 

Already, streaming down the Julian Alps 

In lengthen'd files, the huge array of war 70 

Looks o'er Tergeste, and thy fated walls, 

Bright Aquileia ! From the level plain 

Amazed the peasant views the skirts of war 

Spread round the vast horizon. Hamlets blaze 

In pagan flames involved, and unopposed 75 

Onward the tide of violation rolls. 

Slow curling from the ravaged champaign rose 
The dim cinereous cloud ; and, gathering thick 
Around each mountain summit, lurid fumes 
Hung darkling. Shrouded in that canopy 80 

With joy the Evil one his work survey'd, 
And that unhousel'd army, which their chief 
Array'd against the Highest. No common cause 
Hung in the scales ; but mortal arms once more 

K 



130 ATTILA. 

Must prove the dire arbitrament assay'd 85 

Of old in Phlegra, when the giants fell 

Warring against the Mighty One, whose darts 

Burnt sulphurous, with fiery vengeance wing'd, 

From Solfatara to where Typhos writhes 

Beneath Inarime and huge ^Etna's weight. 90 

Arms must declare, as in that later day 

At Armageddon, on the sevenfold hills 

Which power shall sit supreme, adored by men 

In hierarchal glory, and from thence 

Send forth his faith to the four winds of heaven, 95 

Messiah, or the Adversary. Assured 

In conscious strength, upon divided Rome 

The pagan pours his congregated might; 

From Albis, which the blue-eyed Saxon drinks, 

Mosa, or Rhene; from Scandia's frozen belt ; 100 

From distant Asia, where the Tartar swain 

Reaps liquid sulphur mid the clear green waves 

Of Baikal's * holy pool, or tends his flock 

Along the skirts of vast Imaus spread ; 

From snow-»topt Caucasus, and that inland sea, 105 

Where fierce the native trains his coal-black f whelps 



* A great lake in Siberia, environed by high mountains, which is 
called by the neighbouring people the holy lake. In that part which 
lies near the river Bargusin it throws up an inflammable sulphureous 
liquid called Maltha, which the natives of the adjoining country burn 
in their lamps. There are several sulphureous springs near the lake. 

t Valerius Flaccus states that the Caspians trained a numerous 
pack of dogs to spring up at the sound of the trumpet, and to fight 
by the side of their masters. The breasts and necks of the dogs were 
covered with iron armour, and their colour was black, unlessi n men- 
tioning the colour he alludes merely to the iron covering. See Argon, 
vi. 107. 



BOOK VI. 131 

To fellowship in war, a steel-clad pack 

Baying like Hecat's * kennel ; from the coast 

Of Colchos and f Iberia, once the seat 

Of those Iazyges, whose impious sword 1 1 

Blush'd with paternal gore, when frozen age 

Unnerved their sires for battle ; from the wilds 

Where tigers hear the foaming Oxus roar, 

From Baku + drear, the Guebres' fiery land, 

From famed Euphrates, and the flowery groves 115 

Where Philomele, forgetful of her wrongs, 

Woos the sweet summer rose with amorous strains. 

Flank'd by the hoarse Timavus and thy towers, 

Tergeste, with extended line Rome's strength 

Stood waiting for the shock. O for the § arm 120 

That late at Faesulae o'erthrew the Gete, 

Stern Radagais, with all his boastful might, 

Gothic or Vandal, whose bones uninhumed 

Whiten the Tuscan hills, while in the North 

His cenotaph and altars vainly reek 125 

With expiatory blood ! O for the skill 



* The dogs which accompanied Hecate. Superas Hecates comi- 
tatusad auras. Val. Flac. vi. 112. Skulakes propoloi. Orph. Arg. 983. 
Stygiasque canes in luce superna. Lucan. 

t Iberia was part of the country lying between the Black Sea and 
the Caspian. The Iazyges were a people who formerly dwelt there, 
and were in the habit of killing their fathers when they became un- 
fit from age to draw the bow or hurl the javelin. See Val. Flac. vi. 
120. Tacitus (ann. xii. 29. and 30.) says they were a Sarin atian peo- 
ple, impatient of confinement, and that they were located by Claudius 
in Pannonia or Hungary. 

X A town in Persia on the gulph of Ghilan in the Caspian sea, a 
principal seat of the fire-worshippers. 

§ Stilicho. See Hist, treat. $. 10. 

K 2 



132 ATTILA. 

Of Chalons' * subtle conqueror, to ward 

Fresh insult, utter overthrow and rout ! 

Impetuous, springing from his mountain lair, 

The pagan comes. Not broken, not subdued, 130 

But quite from earth j- abolish'd, and dissolved 

As summer vapours by the glorious sun, 

That host, Rome's bulwark, sinks, at the first shock 

Annihilate. Short time for doughty deeds, 

Where all is terror, wild dismay, and flight. 135 

Victorious, with dire front and lengthen'd flanks, 

Breathing vindictive rage, the heathen war 

Around beleaguer'd Aquileia stands. 

Strong of defence, the beauteous city, robed 

With wall and turret, by Natissa's flood 140 

Look'd o'er the Adriatic, like the queen 

Of those bright waters, and withstood with might 

The merciless invaders. They the while 

Spread havoc even to Benacus, pour'd 

Along the cultured vales. Terror precedes; 145 

And treason, nestling in the righteous fold, 

Yields up the flock. Apostate Helmund, robed 

In sacerdotal garb, betray'd thy strength, 

Tarvisium, and his God's polluted house, 

Unto the pagan ; false Diatheric threw 1 50 

Wide open to the Hun Verona's gate, 

And, unresisting, to the dreaded scourge 

Bow'd Mantua, while the din of heathen war 

Alarm'd Italia's virgins on thy banks, 

Eridanus, monarch of Hesperian floods. 155 

* Aetius. 
t Callimachus says of Attila on this occasion, " non vicit modo, 
sed prope delevit." 



BOOK VI. 133 

The landscape glisten'd wide and far with arms, 

Like that Cadmean * crop, which from the glebe 

In complete panoply sprang serpent-born, 

With helmets, shields, and spears. But still intact 

Strong Aquileia hurls back threat for threat. 160 

Each fainting heart by Menapus assured 

Breathes new defiance, mindful of the deeds 

Done by their fathers oft, when barbarous arms 

Around her clang'd. Facing to Aquilon 

A ponderous tower antique, with hoary strength, 165 

Had breasted all invasion, ever since 

The second Caesar rear'd f a double wall 

From swift Natissa's margin, stretching far 

Eastward of Aquileia, to enclose 

Her domes and aqueducts of marble sheen, 170 

Temples, and theatres, and gorgeous ways 

Stone-paved, and beautified another Rome. 

That structure, bulwark of the guarded town, 

Her wary chief with outer wall and fosse 

Doubly assured. As that huge promontory, 175 

Round which the daring mariner, who sail'd 

First, without compass, upon untried seas, 

Saw other stars, and Hyperion flame 

Far in the North, repels with stubborn front 

The swell of that vast ocean, mountain-high, 180 

Over which Auster with no lenient breath 

* Cadmus, having slain the serpent, sowed its teeth in the earth, from 
which presently sprang up a crop of men completely armed. 

t The remains of the double wall were extant in the time of Jolnunii's 
Candidus, with an inscription detailing the works erected there by 
Augustus Caesar. See also Orosius lib. G. c. '20. Aquileia was called 
another or second Rome. 



134 ATT1LA. 

Comes rushing from the pole : day after day 

Assail'd with pelting sleet of war, that tower 

Baffles the Hun. Stones, arrows, molten lead, 

And flaming pitch, upon the pagan host 185 

Shot from the battlements, spread fear and death, 

As when Jove thunders from the crest of Caf 

Hurling his lurid bolts. The scalers reel 

Smit by the blazing death in middle air, 

And tumble sheer, where water, blood, and fire, 190 

Hissing commingle in the fosse below, 

And havoc strews the plain. The soldier moans 

Oft goaded to the assault, and many-tongued 

The whisper'd murmurs run. Three waning moons 

Had seen the grim-faced sons of Aliorune 195 

Camp round the gallant town ; and Hunnium's peak, 

To heaven up-piled with shield-borne earth and stones, 

(An army's labour, still unscathed by Time) 

Lorded the Julian champaign, emulous 

Of that old tower, which whilom in Sennaar 200 

Lifted its daring altitude ; a hold 

Against reverse secure, closing the way 

From Iapidia and Dalmatian hills. 

Grim Attila alone (like Him accurst, 

Who treads unseen in gloom, so to surprise 205 

Man's weakness, and confound the works of God) 

Survey'd the bulwarks, which yet saved from scathe 

The Adriatic queen. Amazed he spies 

A secret portal open, where the sewer 

Pour'd forth its turbid stream. From the oozy bed 210 

Sudden upstarting, in dark armour sheathed, 

A cohort stood before him. Aid is none, 

Save from his own dread sword, and mightier still 



BOOK VI. 135 

The terror of his name. " Glory ascribe," 

Their leader cried, "to whom the praise is due. 215 

" To Him, who by his servant David's arm 

" Slew the blaspheming Philistine, what time 

" His army, that defied the living God, 

" Fell stricken by His vengeance, all the way 

" From Shaharaim to the skirts of Gath, 220 

" A bloody rout. Submit thee, king, or die ! 

" His might hath yielded thee into our hands, 

" Fell scourge of heaven !" The haughty vaunt was sped, 

And still the echo of that daring call 

Hung on the ear of night, but he lay maim'd 225 

Gasping for life ; beside him writhed in gore 

Another, smitten by the sword ; aghast 

Their comrades, shrinking, view no earthly fire 

Gleam from the eyes of Attila. His glaive, 

Like some prodigious meteor, shone upraised, 230 

Dispensing death ; while from his visage glared 

The spirit within, more deadly than the glance 

Of basilisk, or that angel of the storm 

Who look'd from Sodom on the # shepherd's wife ; 

As though the Evil one had made his frame 235 

A tenement unhallow'd, and in wrath 

Breathed thro' its issues death, and, worse than death, 

Perdition ever-during and despair. 

As he, who, journeying at dead of night 

Thro' dark Hercynia's f wood, where popular dread 240 

Fills every glen with strange unholy shapes, 

Or seen, or fancied, at the perilous hour 

When such have might, oft looks behind, and oft 

* Lot. Exod. xiv. 24. t The black forest, 



136 ATTILA. 

Turns nothing less affrighted to his course, 

Till full before him glares the dreaded form, 245 

Too horrible for mortal vision : thus 

Awe-stricken they into that miry stream 

Return'd precipitate, and stole by flight 

A few more miserable hours of life. 

He backward musing trod, and gain'd his camp, 250 

As ruddy morning dawn'd. Him Alberon 

Address'd impetuous, breathing hate of Rome. 

" Why waste we precious days, all-glorious king, 
" Hewing the limbs of Rome ? These barren walls 
" Defy our engines, though they hurl amain 255 

" Huge rocks and fragments from the mountains rent ; 
" While she upon her sevenfold hills in joy 
" Reclines deliciously. Few arms suffice 
" To starve unto submission the firm stones, 
" Which brave the giant's nerve. Lead thou thine host, 
" Where vengeance points the way, and glory calls ! 
" Lop we the hydra's head !" As wont, the king 
Replied not, ever in his purpose fixt. 
Foil'd oft, as oft renewing his assault, 
Infuriate by delay the monarch scowl'd 265 

On Aquileia. Such a withering look 
The angel cast on Egypt, sent to slay 
Her first-born in one night. He bade them heap 
The yawning fosse with furniture of steeds, 
Half of his host's equipment ; and the while 270 

The flight of arrows from each Hunnish bow 
Scared all defence, or spilt the ruddy blood 
Of valour on the leaguer'd battlements. 
Sustain'd upon that buoyant bridge, the Huns 
[vending with shouts the brazen vault of heaven 275 



BOOK VI. 137 

Pass o'er the moat in line ; no engines now, 

No strength of thundering rams the soldier brings, 

But frequent flame the torches, and he groans 

Beneath the weight of trunks and fascines huge, 

Chesnut, or resinous pine, hewn from the slope 280 

Of Carnian hills. Anon the kindled blaze 

Encircles in a flaming belt the wall, 

E'en as that deadly wreath, Medea's gift, 

Around the forehead of Iason's bride 

Clung with consuming heat. The strong cement 285 

Upon the crackling furnace falls, resolved 

Into its elements, and massive stones 

Sink crumbling. Soon a slender breach without 

Through glowing ashes to the Hun bewrays 

The tower's foundation, mighty in its weight 290 

Of ancient masonry. Upon its crown 

Swarm Romans ; stones, and homicidal steel, 

And jets of water, like the unstaid rush 

Of some aerial cataract, give back 

Peril for peril, and a vaporous cloud 295 

Curls upward from the blackening embers sent. 

Undaunted in that breach stands Menapus, 

Alone, as some bold stag with antler'd front 

Repells the clamorous pack, that round him bay 

Thirsting for blood. Sudden the gates unbarr'd 300 

On ponderous hinges turn, and forth the strength 

Of Aquileian chivalry is pour'd, 

With falchion, lance, and shield, and banners gay, 

And high above their heads the * labarum gleams 

Advancing on the plain. Them Oricus, 305 

* The Christian standard of Constantino. 



138 ATT1LA. 

Brave-minded brother of the chieftain, leads, 

Whose path was ever, where bright Glory's form 

Walks close by Death. Saint Felus ! # was their cry, 

Felus for Aquileia ! and therewith 

They laid upon the Hurmish flank and rear 310 

Such fearful discipline, such ceaseless dint 

Of iron, as when Caurus vehement, 

Waked by the vernal equinox, assails 

With his artillery of hail and sleet 

The hop^ of fruitfulness. Then Menapus 315 

Sprang foremost from the breach, and him, steel-clad, 

Half Aquileia follow'd. On the Huns 

They sally, speeding the barb'd shower of death, 

And snatch the blazing brands, and cast them wide 

Amidst their foemen with a rain of sparks. 320 

Press'd sorely, front and flank, in rout confused 

Those turn to fly ; flying the murderous steel 

O'ertakes them, and the wheeling squadrons tread 

Whom the sword spares, beneath careering hoofs. 

The fugitive wave roll'd back on Attila, 325 

And o'er him shower'd the fire. Instant he turn'd 

Towards his camp, and sign'd his vassal kings 

To draw their squadrons forth in quick array* 

And battle with the Roman. Then came out 

Caparison 'd with gold the Hunnish horse, 330 



* H. Palladius states that after the destruction of the image of the 
Gcd Belenusor Bel is, his temple was dedicated to St. Felix, an Aquileia n 
martyr, and that the common people called him St. Felus, in reminis- 
cence of their ancient tutelary Deity. De rer. Foro Jul. I. 8. Un- 
doubtedly it was dedicated to a saint with a similar name, as a mode 
of compounding with the heathens, which was frequently adopted, and 
led to the corruption of Christianity, and the adoration of saints. 






HOOK VI. 139 

And scarlet-mantled Ostrogoths, on steeds 

Inured to war, and Rugians from the skirts 

Of Baltic ice ; and, close beside, bare-limb'd 

Herulians # ran, whose lightly sandall'd foot 

Kept equal pace with mailed cavalry. 335 

A gallant sight of bravery was there, 

Embroider'd housings, and rich-jewell'd bits, 

And steel coruscating with flashes swift, 

And silken vestments sheen, which dust and blood 

Soon shall defile. Then grew the din of swords, 340 

Lance clashing against lance, axe against axe, 

Shields riven, and the crash of meeting steeds. 

Nor was not in the thickest of that fray 

He, with teraphim on his cuirass graven, 

Nor fought not, as to whom life nought avail'd 345 

Without the victory, that Roman pair, 

Brothers, in glory as in blood allied. 

But little boots their valour, save to earn 

Undying fame, inscribed upon the roll 

Of those who bled for righteousness. Soon fell, 350 

Closing with Attila, brave Oricus ; 

At once around him twenty Scythian blades 

Glisten ; so many chargers o'er his corse 

Pass like a foaming wave. As when the tide 

Of ocean's flowing surge drives back the stream 355 

Of some great river, big with mountain rains, 

Indus, or Ganges, or the mightier floods 

Of that vast continent, which lay conceal'd 

Behind the curtain of the West ; upheaved 



* Concerning the use of Herulians as light infantry, see JornamU 
de reb. Get. p. 70. 



1 40 ATTILA. 

The struggling current froths, and, overborne 360 

By the hoarse-roaring sea, is hurried back 

Toward its fountain. So the Roman strove 

Conflicting with the Hun, so turn'd again 

In hideous rout to Aquileia. Goths 

With their long bill-hooks cleave the Italian's rein, 365 

Whose steed, ungovern'd by his rider's skill, 

ConfuSive flies : the fur-clad Hun pursues, 

And, nimbly borne on lightning-speeded hoofs, 

Unerring throws the fatal noose,* wherewith 

His hopeless foe, in middle course entwined, 370 

Falls, victim to the prompt Herulian's blade. 

Few thro' the hospitable gate return, 

And with them, blended in confusion, rush 

Their fierce pursuers. Menapus, blood-smear'd, 

And faint with wounds, scarce stays the ardent foe 375 

Upon the threshold, and well nigh that day 

Had seen the vulture, gorged with rapine, scowl 

Over the Julian towers. Ill-fated town ! 

Thine outer wall lies ruinous ; within 

Gaunt Famine vexes thee, and sore dismay'd 380 

The cherub Hope grows pale. Three fearful nights, 

If rumour rightly tells, the soldier look'd 

Towards Tergeste o'er the level plain, 

And saw, beneath the moon, Rome's vanquish'd host, 

With many a slain barbarian,f ghastly rise 385 

* See Ammianus Marcellinus. 
t Damascius, who wrote in the reign of Theodoric king of Italy, 
which commenced about 48 years after the death of Attila, states, that 
in a battle fought between Attila and the Romans, the carnage was 
excessive, " but, what is wonderful, after they had fallen and their 
bodies were dead, they fought with their souls during three days and 



BOOK VI. 141 

From the gore-sprinkled earth, and there renew 

The strife, unfinish'd by devouring death. 

Upon the eyrie breeze the din of arms 

Came terrible, and spears and falchions gave 

Portentous light beneath the uncertain ray ; 390 

And thrice, as faded the dim stars of heaven, 

Extinguish'd by the heathen battle sank 

Rome's legions ; with strange tones, unearthly shouts 

Of fiendish joy, the empyrean rang, 

While Death * upon his pale horse rode unstaid 395 

With his four plagues, Hell following; and the cry 

Of saints rose even to the Holy one, 

Avenger of the righteous. The fourth night 

That martial glamour ceased, and stillness lull'd 

The mirky air, foreboding worse event. 400 

Yet stood the mightiest bulwark still entire, 

Daring the Hun. Dark discontent had chill'd 

The strength of the assailants ; their king's eye, 

Fixt on the northern tower right opposite, 

Scann'd its obdurate strength ; when, slowly poised 405 

Upon her out-stretch'd wings a clamorous stork 

From the aerial summit with her brood 

Flew southward, sailing from the field of strife. 

" So fly thy guardian Gods !" the monarch cried, 

Presaging by that augury the fall 410 

Of Aquileia's bulwark, and fierce joy 

Illumed his swarthy skin. With instant voice 

Of gratulation and triumphal shout 

nights, being nowise inferior in strength and courage to living com- 
batants. The phantoms of their souls were seen and heard in colli- 
sion and clashing their arms."— Damasc. ap. Phot. bibl. p. 340. Berlin. 
1824. * Revelation vi. 8. 



142 



ATTILA. 



He cheer'd his host ; then bade the trump * of death 

Ahenean at the massive portals sound, 415 

By Bleda heard whilere with ominous bray 

Foreboding blood, what time Sicambria's walls 

Craved the accurst piation. Long and loud 

Rung the terrific clang, nor e'er in vain 

That herald of grim Erebus sent forth 420 

The irrevocable doom. At that dread call 

Upsprang each Christian, as if manifest 

Death's angel o'er his couch had flapp'd the wing 

Tartarean, from whose shadow escape is none. 

Short prayer they make in peril imminent 425 

To Him, who sent upon Assyria's f king 



t Some curious old verses by John Gower concerning the king of 
Hungary, and the trump of death, evidently allude to a tradition con- 
cerning Attila, though we know not the source from whence he derived it. 
" I find upon surquedry 
That whilome of Hungary 
In olde days there was a king j" 
and he had a brazen trumpet, " which was cleped the tromp of dethe." 
A great nobleman was the keeper of it. If any one had displeased the 
king unto death, that lord repaired to his gate and blew the trumpet. 
That king of Hungary having some words with his own brother, caused 
the trumpet of death to be blown at his gate to frighten him ; but in 
that solitary instance the blast was not followed by death, and he was 
pardoned. See Conf. amant. 196. ed. 1532. This seems to be a dis- 
torted tradition relating to the murder of Bleda by Attila. A very 
similar practice was known in Rome. See Tac. ann. 1. 2. c. 32. " L. 
Pituanius saxo dejectus est; in P. Martium consules extra portam 
Exquilinam, cum classicum canere jussissent, more prisco advertere." 
Terentius Varro states the summons by trumpet when Sergius Marius 
accused Trogus capitally. •' Curent eo die quo comitia erunt, in arce 
chissicus canat, turn circumquc muros et ante privati hujusce scelerosi 
hominis hosticum canat." De ling. Lat. 5. p. TO.— Bipont. 

t Sennacherib. Sec 2 Kings xix. 7. and 2 Chron. xxxii. 



'BOOK VI. 143 

A blast, a rumour, and the fatal arm 

Of his destroying messenger, what time 

With horse and chariots to the leafy side 

Of Lebanon he came, gorged with the blood 430 

Of nations, whose vain Gods were wood and stone, 

Work of created hands. And some, who cling 

To errors old, or waver in Christ's faith, 

Cry to their guardian spirit # Belenus, 

Seen whilom in mid air with shield and bow 435 

Effulgent, like the radiant God of day, 

To fight for Aquileia. Some are turn'd 

To desperation, in whose hearts the word 

Gladly received had push'd no stable root ; 

Round Menapus and their good patriarch 440 

Mcetas, clamouring, they curse the name 

Of their Redeemer, and the pious hands, 

Which late o'erthrew the fanes of heathendom 

And altars foul with blood. Blaspheming these 

Seek to relume old Vesta's mouldering hearth, 445 

Or wail to Jove for succour ; but the word 

Is gone forth, and Jehovah's scourge has power 

To wipe out the condemn'd. Hearts resolute 

To perish for their country and their God 

Throng the assaulted battlements ; in vain 450 

Balistas strong and onagers, that throw 

Javelins or stones, and mimic scorpions ply. 

With mightier strength the Hunnish engines urge 

* The tutelary God of Aquileia. See Herodian, 1. 8. c. 7. The 
accentuation of the name is determined by a verse of Ausonius. The 
soldiers of Maximin, when he besieged Aquileia, affirmed that they 
saw the likeness of the God Belis or Belenus in the air fighting- for 
the town. 



144 ATTILA. 

The aggression, each a huge Leviathan, 

Or hundred-handed Briareus, against 455 

That fated tower. Hurl'd high, vast granite blocks 

Shoot skyward, and their ponderous fall beats down 

Turret and battlement, with deadlier stroke 

Than Jove's Cyclopean thunderbolt. Upheaved 

By thousand sinews still successive fly 460 

Gigantic stones ; till crumbling to its base 

The stately fabric from its airy brow 

Drew ruin, with a crash, that shook far off 

Tergeste's bay, and echoing wider smote 

Mount Maurus, and the peaks of Alpine snow. 465 

Uprose the dust from that great wreck to heaven ; 

And stillness, quiet as the voiceless grave, 

Follow'd that fearful sound, as if the world 

Had pass'd away therewith annihilate. 

Slowly dispersing, the pulvereous cloud 470 

Reveal'd destruction, and a piteous breach 

UnveiM rich palaces and marble domes 

Unto the hungry spoliator's view. 

Then rose the shriek within the captured town, 

Matronal wail, and virgin agony, 475 

And the loud voice of triumph smote the heaven 

Re-echoed far, a wild and dissonant whoop 

Over the quarry, from the ravening throats 

Of all that heathen multitude . What ensued 

Ear hath not heard, nor mind of man conceived, 480 

Nor eye, save that which judgeth all, survey'd 

In every shape of horror multiform. 

Day dawn'd, and Aquileia was no more. 

No structure marks her site ; no dwelling stands, 

Where once she grew in beauty ; ruthless war 485 



BOOK VI. 145 

Has swept her from the marge of those blue waves, 

Which laughing heaved before her marble halls, 

And wafted oft, by summer suns illumed, 

Gladness, and song, and still unheeding youth, 

Upon their sparkling foam. Nor hoary years, 490 

Nor infancy, nor sex, nor beauty, gain'd 

The respite of an hour ; stern havoc, led 

By desolating vengeance, laid all waste : 

Her very stones were hurl'd into the deep, 

And the plough razed her thresholds. The sad swain 495 

Looks piteous o'er the vale, and asks where stood 

Bright Aquileia in her pride of power. 

One remnant of the wreck, like halcyons, 

Fled timorous o'er the Adriatic foam, 

And laid its nest amid the waters, close 500 

Cradled in sedge, beyond the vulture's grasp, 

Where Meduacus laves the sunny isles 

That gem the azure wave. There long secure 

The infant bride of ocean trick'd her charms, 

Whose full-zoned prime of womanhood outshone 505 

The queens of earth in glory. Thou didst rise, 

Young Venice, from that ruin call'd to life, 

Brighter than her, who bore thee mid the alarm 

Of violation ; to avenge her ills 

Rearing the cross of Christ, and ever prompt 510 

To battle with the infidel. Thou shalt ride 

Supreme upon the deep, thy sea-green hair 

Sparkling with orient pearl, thy nuptial couch 

With golden conchs and Tyrian tissues deck'd, 

Honour'd, and fair, and mighty ! when the deeds 515 

Of him, who stands beside thy parent's wreck, 

Stern victor, viewing his unhallow'd work, 

L 



146 ATTILA. 

Shall sink obscured into the abyss of time. 

Death's revel was unfinish'd ; but aloof 
Beside Natissa, o'er a bleeding form, 520 

Lean'd Alberon ; his alter'd eye was dim 
With sorrow, and each fiercer passion staid. 
Full of his wrongs, with many a long-hair'd Frank 
That shouted to the carnage, he had rush'd 
First thro' the breach, cheering that merciless pack 525 
To deeds of lust and blood. Nor backward they, 
Nor slow to work his bidding ; the wild shrieks 
Of women came on his insatiate ear, 
Big with retributive joy. His sword was red 
E'en with the blood of babes, and, on his brow 530 

Obdurate, like a ministering fiend, 
Sat deadly hate. As when in act to spring 
The serpent, charm'd by spells of potent sound, 
Stands rivetted ; its fearful crest erect 
Sinks slowly, and the coiled folds relax ; 535 

So sudden stood in mid career of rage 
Astonied Alberon ; like who had gazed 
Upon the aegis, and that beauteous face, 
Which turn'd all flesh to stone. A shriek, * once heard, 
And ne'er forgotten since, a voice, once known 540 

E'en to his inmost and still quivering there, 
Made each hair start with horror ; not, as oft, 
In stillness by delusive fancy brought, 
But full of life and agony. His eye, 
Uplifted to the battlements, beheld 545 

A sight, which made the blessed light a curse 
Darker than Acheron ; that beauteous form, 



Book i. v. 450. 



BOOK VI. 147 

Which was his day-dream, and at still of night 

The vision of his couch, by impious force 

Dragg'd in dishonour, struggling in the grasp 550 

Of his own ruthless Franks, by him cheer'd on 

To rape and sacrilege. He saw, and ere 

His arm was raised to rescue, ere his voice 

Could check his ministers of guilt and blood, 

With visage veil'd # she flung her bleeding form, 555 

A self-devoted victim, from the tower 

Which swift Natissa laved. Into the deep 

Leap'd desperate Alberon. A massive beam, 

Fragment of some rent palace, on the wave 

Lay floating; buoy'd upon its ample bulk 560 

All arm'd he stems the perilous flood, and holds 

The bride of his young hopes, how lost ! and how 

Recover'd ! From the ruthless scene of blood 

Retired, beside that form beloved in vain, 

Clodion's first-born stood speechless. She, reclined 565 

Upon the margin green, with wistful eyes 

Spoke things unutterable. Upon her breast 

A crucifix, suspended, told what fount 

Had sprinkled her ; then thus, outbreathing love 

Hallow'd by holiest thoughts, and purified 570 

Of all terrestrial hope. " My life ! my lord ! 

" What mind, save His omnipotent, who sees 

" All that e'er was or ever will ensue, 

" Could have forethought this hour ! yet be it blest, 

" So, most beloved upon this fleeting earth, 575 

* This circumstance is recorded of a Roman matron in Aquileia 
named Digna. Veiling the head was usual with those devoted Dis 
Manibus ; the superstitious practice appears to have survived the ehange 
of religion. 

L 2 



148 ATTILA. 

" It bring new hope to thee, whom unredeem'd 

" From fatal error and the bloody creed 

" Of dark idolatries, to this lone heart 

" Eternity seems one long night of wo, 

" And the bright promises of deathless joy 580 

" All incomplete and vain. O Alberon, 

" By all the thrilling thoughts of thy first love, 

" By our sad bridal morn, and the deep gloom 

" Of thraldom, which cut short the dawn of bliss, 

" In anguish I adjure thee, stay the arm 585 

" Red with innocuous gore, that pleads to God 

" With thousand tongues angelic ! Not the grim Power 

" In thy Turnacum glorified, not they, 

" Fierce idols, tenants of the coal-black * grove, 

" Gorged with the blood of man, can give thee might 590 

" Against Jehovah : albeit, some short space 

" Permitted for our sins, the arm of flesh 

" Spread havoc, and defile the works of God. 

" There is a hope, that maketh not ashamed, 

" Repentance not to be repented ; faith, 595 

" On which the arm that leans shall never fail 

" Here, or hereafter. Wake from earthly scenes, 

" Wake, Alberon beloved, to tread with me 

" Fresh pastures, where the dove-like Spirit bears 

" Healing upon its wings with holy peace, 600 

" And sorrow never comes ! Then welcome Death, 

" The term of all our labours, which shall join 

" Us sever'd here by fate !" Awhile he paused, 

As if of purpose doubtful ; and his mind, 

Touch'd with excelling love, to pity gave 605 

* Nemus Carbonarium. 



BOOK VI. 149 

Admittance brief and momentary rule : 

But hate of the Messiah in his soul 

Superior rose ; as, brooding o'er his wrongs, 

He thought upon Aetius, of his bride 

Despoiler, and that spurious king of Franks, 610 

Clodion's equerry with the Roman leagued, 

False Meroveus, who from his birthright, 

Lutetia's * throne, supplanted him, cast forth 

With his two brothers and the widow'd queen, 

Thuringian Basina, whose pleaded griefs, 615 

In congress at Bicurgium, drew the Hun 

On Belgia and the Gaul. He thought (and big 

S well'd the full tide within) of Clodion's throne, 

And Cameracum, f his new realm upheld 

By Hunnish arms against the rebel Franc ; 620 

And that Hannonian J mountain, which bad Powers 

O'ershadow'd, guarded by religious awe. 

There oft with savour dire of sacrifice 

Fumed gory altars, redolent of death, 

And the wild huntsman Hesus, with his pack 625 

Abominable, snuff'd the recent blood 

Of many an human victim. That high place 

Opprobrious lorded the Brabantian plain, 

Girt with compacted masonry, which not 

Usurping Meroveus could invade 630 

With all his traitorous Franks, nor the amorous § king 

Entomb'd in old Turnacum ; but the might 

Of bloody Clovis in succeeding time 

Soil'd his grey hairs with gore, and trod to earth 

The Cameracan brothers, from that hold 635 



* Paris. t Canibray. { Mons in Haiuault. $ Childeric. 



150 ATTILA. 

Dragg'd to their death. Yet from Argotta's bed 

One scyon, princely Vambert, shall eschew 

The tyrant, and his sons in lengthened line 

O'er gloomy Arduenna shall bear sway, 

Till raised again unto the glorious state 640 

Of their forefather. With impatient heat 

Thus, breathing hate to Rome and her fresh creed, 

Fierce Alberon made answer. " Ask not me, 

" Most loved, most wrong'd of women, as most fair, 

" Union accurst with Rome ! At those new shrines 645 

" Bid Meroveus bow his faithless head, 

u Brother not brother, born * of a sea-fiend 

" And leprous as his dam, in evil hour 

" Whom Clodion press'd ; what time, by glamour vain 

" Illuded, he descried not her vile shape 650 

" Of colour serpentine, and nether parts 

" With scales offensive. Him and his allies, 

" Rome, Christian Rome, alike my soul abhors. 

" Ask ought, save this, and be in all obey'd, 

" Dear sufferer ! and, lo, from vengeful deeds 655 

" Recall'd, my legions stand by this still flood, 

" While the Hun revels in yon fated town, 

" Brightest yestrene of cities, from this hour 

" A wilderness for wolves." She meek replied, 

" My life is waning, Alberon, and fast 660 

" Declines unto the grave ; nor e'er shall I, 

" Whose fortunes, soil'd by slavery, would ill 

" Thy greatness fit, embrace thee in the pride 

" Of youthful hope ; nor would I bring thee shame, 

" Sunk as I am, and by unseemly wrongs 665 






* Sec Hist, treat. § 40. 



BOOK VI. 151 

" Blighted before my prime. Yet grant, O grant, 

" To this weak spirit the brief boon, to die 

" By holy rites absolved and purified ! 

" Bear me to Cyprian's solitude afar, 

" Where Savus, amid lonely mountains born, 670 

" Rushes from rock to rock, or lingering dwells 

" Where the unruffled tide of some blue lake 

" Spreads clear and tranquil. From that crystal fount 

" Regenerate life on my despairing brow 

" Shed orient hopes. There first I learnt to know 675 

" My Saviour and my God. That glorious flood 

" Was dear unto my musings, and I read 

" The book of nature, by good Cyprian taught 

" To trace, there pictured, man's immortal course 

" In those bright waters ; cradled on the breast 680 

" Of Alpine snows, that feed their infancy 

" Slow-trickling ; hurried next from cliff to cliff 

" Impetuous, till with strength matured they flow 

" Ample, profound, and calm; thence issuing glide 

" To subterranean darkness, under caves 685 

" Deep and unseen. Yet, bursting from their tomb 

" And sparkling amid pastures never sere, 

" Their volume to the vast unchanging sea 

" Wins its majestic way. In holy peace 

" There, bosom 'd gently on the lap of death, 690 

" My spirit shall to its Creator find 

" Easy access, and intercession made 

" By Him, who bare our sins ; in death more blest 

" Than living, if, amid those scenes sublime, 

" The lore of that good anchorite should draw 695 

" Thy heart to better thoughts, and ope the gate 

" To heaven's beatitude.'' She ceased, and faint 



152 4TTILA. 

On his supporting arm her pale form lay 

Mournful in beauty extreme. His eye, suffused 

With anguish nothing wont, look'd piteously 700 

On her so loved, so rescued, and yet lost 

Beyond love's burning hopes. Answer he made 

None, for deep passion choked the issue of speech : 

But sign'd his brother Rauchas to advance 

The litter, spread with tissues soft and rare, 705 

Sack'd Aquileia's booty ; and forthwith, 

Her boon vouchsafing, with small pomp of war 

March'd northward. To loved Reginald he gave 

Vicegerency o'er his legions, to abide 

His regress. Thence, as that fair mourner bade, 710 

By sparkling Sontius, whose stream swift and clear 

Mingles its water with Natissa's flood, 

They journey to the dales, where Savus grows 

From many an Alpine source ; and soon descry, 

O'erhung by woods and rock, the mountain lake 715 

Cerulean, Wochain cleped in later days ; 

Nor far a narrow glen, steep of ascent, 

Whence, gurgling, trickled underneath the shade 

A runlet, clearer than Bandusia's spring, 

Or that famed fount of Corinth eminent 720 

Pirene pale, and Hippocrene that sprang 

From the wing'd hoof in Helicon. There sat 

Beneath his stony cell, the man of God 

With pensive eye, unblench'd by hoary age, 

Scanning the book of life. To them uprose 725 

The holy anchorite, and gazed, for rare 

In that still solitude and trackless vale 

The tread of mailed man. " Welcome, my sons, 

" What cause soever to this tranquil seat 



BOOK VI. 153 

" Conducts ye !" mild he said. " If sent by him, 730 

" God's scourge, to take from these time-whiten'd brows 

" What lingers yet of life, God's will is just, 

" And I, long zealous for His hallow'd word, 

" Obey the call with gladness. If, though trick'd 

" With heathen pageantry, ye come to lave 735 

" Transgressions in this fount, the page of truth 

" Lies open, and, by our Redeemer bought 

" For sinful man, His peace to all that seek 

" Is freely given." To him thus Alberon ; 

" Nor hostile, to defile thy silver locks, 740 

" Nor suppliant to thy Gods, O Roman, comes 

" Clodion's sad offspring. Why before thee stands 

" Innocuous, fresh from Aquileia's sack, 

" Its conqueror, ask yon fairest of her kind, 

" His bride despoil'd by Rome." A pang, like death, 745 

Shot thro' the heart of Cyprian. " Art thou fallen," 

He cried, " bright city of the faithful ! reap'd 

" By the destroyer in thy loveliness ! 

(i And thou, meek neophyte, must these old hands, 

" Which sign'd the cross upon thy brow, anoint 750 

" Thee for thy burial, whose morn of life 

" Seems wasted ere its promise !" " Father," she said, 

Uplifting her mild countenance, " thou see'st 

" The wife of Alberon ; and would that he 

" Were altogether such as I am, turn'd 755 

" From sin's original darkness to my God. 

" The bitterness of death were pass'd, and all 

" My heart holds dear fulfill' d, so he might taste 

" The cup of his salvation. Few remain 

w The moments, which e'en now are fleeting fast 760 

" To mine eternal doom. Mountains sublime, 



154 ATTILA. 

Nigh heaven uppiled ! and thou, romantic vale, 
Sloping from snow-crown 'd peaks ! no more on ye 
These eyes shall open ! Death is stealing on, 
And the earth's beauties fade. O Alberon, 765 

There is a brighter kingdom, a new world, 
Where all may enter, led by saving faith 
To glory ever-during. Wilt thou meet 
There thy betroth'd ? or have our mortal eyes 
Look'd their last beam of love ?" To her replied 770 
The prince, " Almost thou hast persuaded me 
To be a Christian ; but, while thus I gaze 
Hopeless on all I love, the spirit boils 
Maddening within for vengeance." " Peace, rash youth, 
The arm of vengeance is Jehovah's," cried 775 

The man of God. " If in revenge is joy, 

It needs no sword of thine. The unborn times, 
Seen by the saint * in Patmos, cast their shade 
On the opprobrious town, that boasted once 
To see no sorrow : but ere few short moons 780 

Her judgment comes, and all the kings of earth, 
Unclean partakers of her sins, shall mourn 
The conflagration. Blessed then, elect 
Of God, who have come out and not received 
Of her defilement ! Silent and aloof 785 

Stand, unregenerate man, while the last rites 
Religion sheds o'er this repentant child." 
He said, but to her hand clung Alberon, 
As her flush'd cheek grew pale ; her eyes were fixt 
Upon the symbol, which that old man held 790 

Aloft, imploring Christ ; no breathing stirr'd 

* St. John. See Revelation. 



BOOK VI. 155 

Her humid lip ; the sad youth thought that still 

Fondly her palm press'd his ; but far away 

Her spirit, thro' the realms of ether pure, 

Had wing'd its glorious flight unto her God. 795 

They laid her near that aged hermit's cell, 

Where, sloping to the East, the flowery turf 

Drank freshness, and the rill, beside whose course 

To her perennial rest she gently sank, 

Invited slumber. O'er her lowly grave 800 

The anchorite out-pour'd a mournful chaunt, 

To Him, who gave and took his own away, 

Glory and praise ; and loud and shrill the Franks 

Raised their lament in accents barbarous, 

A wild and melancholy cry. Nor prayers 805 

Nor counsel lack'd of Cyprian, to win 

Sad Alberon to the God of his beloved ; 

But pride forbade, which bars the narrow gate 

Thro' which the humble enter : pride, which drove 

The Babylonian from his kingly throne 810 

To make his dwelling with the grazed ox 

Outcast from men. With her dear spirit fled 

His better thoughts. Gloomy and wroth he turn'd 

His course unto Hannonia, and there made 

Libations homicidal to his Gods, 815 

A fiendish holocaust, and impious zeal 

With murderous rites profaned her obsequies. 

And art thou of my great forefathers one, 
As not unfaithful the heraldic # page 

* See the genealogy in Edmonstone's peerage brought down from 
Charlemain thro' Herebert Count of Vermandois, who came to England 
with William the First. The previous succession from Marcomir to 
Charlemain might have been prefixed. 



156 ATTILA. 

Avers, stern Alberon ! and is the spark, 820 

That, smouldering in this bosom, wakes at times 

A yearning for the praise which man concedes 

To the excelling, and the glowing thought 

That whispers, though repress'd, I might have trod 

A loftier path among the sons of fame, 825 

From thee and thine illustrious sires derived, 

Whom, high uplifted on the kingly shield 

Amidst the shout of thousands, olden time 

Saw in their glory ! I can never think 

Of thee in thy deep forest, and the rites 830 

By dark abominations oft denied 

Done to the gloomy Powers, who had foretold 

The restoration of thy royal line 

To all thy father held, (promise made good 

In Charlemain) but my excited mind 835 

O'erleaps the gulph of ages, and brings back 

Thee palpable in all thy strange attire, 

And long-hair'd Clodion # bending to the earth 

Over his first-born, and old Pharamond, 

And Marcomir, the first preferr'd by fame 840 

Of thine exalted race. That vision stirs 

A secret voice within, crying, " Were these 

w Indeed my sires, veil'd by the mist of years 

" From near perception ! waved those hoary locks, 

" Which Clovis trampled with his bloody foot, 845 

" On my forefather's brow ! from whom I sprung 

" In long concatenation of those ties, 

" Which to the human spirit are most dear 



* Clodion is said to have died of grief for the loss of his eldest son 
killed at the siege of Soissons. 



BOOK VI. 157 

" In this its dwelling !" till the wistful gaze 

Dives thro' the depth of years, and fain would brave 850 

The tyrant in his phrensy. If ye be 

In truth the fountain, from which I and mine 

Have glided down the flood of time, peace rest 

Upon your ancient tombs, and the Benign 

Forgive the sins ye knew not ! In that line 855 

Successive, O how many hearts have beat 

With pleasure or with crime ! how many shapes 

Have turn'd from beauty to the loathly worm, 

From glory to the grave ! how many sires 

Have breathed the blessing of parental joy 860 

Over their earliest born ! which, were we not 

The creatures of a day, would still the first 

In love to his remotest issue join. 

But we are fleeting shadows ; the warm pulse 

Throbs its short hour, but our affections lie 865 

All compass'd in the petty space between 

The cradle and the tomb ; and those, whom years 

Shall usher on this changeful stage of life 

Hereafter, the frail offspring of our loins, 

To us no debt of memory will yield, 870 

Unless from our achievements they derive 

A lustre not their own. Ages roll on, 

And dense oblivion covers every tie. 



ATTILA. 



BOOK SEVENTH. 

Aloof, where Hindarfell with rugged brow 

Looks o'er the Rhine, in panoply of gold 

Stood Hilda, famous in the song of scalds 

And legends warbled by Teutonian tongue, 

Stern sorceress. With powerful spells illumed 5 

Her wondrous beauty, underneath the veil 

Nocturnal, gleam'd terrific. By the Hun 

Divorced with guile from his incestuous couch, 

Fit sister of fit lord, the mailed queen 

Mused o'er deep vengeance. In precocious youth 10 

She first to Attila disclosed the way 

Of science dark and perilous. Her charms 

Mutter'd in gloom, while shapes unholy glared 

Around her mystic cauldron manifest, 

Gave warning to bedew Sicambria's towers 15 

With ruddy fratricide, piation dear 

To Mars the murderer, since that slain boy, 

Who first upon the Aventine espied 

The scantier flight of vultures, by his blood 

Portended might to Rome, which should endure 20 

Twelve centuries, foreshadow'd then by twelve 

Prophetic fowls. With watchful ear she heard 



BOOK VII. 159 

The silent step of Time, the Spirit dread 

That knock'd at midnight the Romulean gate 

Warning the term expired, the kingdom then 25 

Number'd and finish'd. By her wizard hand 

Fashion'd of oricalch, the trump of death 

Mysterious clang'd by night at Bleda's door, 

And that same hour Sicambria's stones were red 

With gory consecration. Her nathless 30 

The monarch, with unholy passion smit 

Of beauteous Eskam, their youth-blooming child, 

Cast forth abased. At eve, thro' philtres strange 

Entranced, to a new bridegroom she was given 

Unconscious. By the dawn awaked to wo 35 

In Gunther's arms, on the Burgundian couch 

Silent nine days she lay, brooding revenge, 

Nor tired her raven locks, nor tasted food, 

Nor look'd on Hyperion's golden ray 

Odious as night : but oft in stillest gloom 40 

Low voices thro" her chamber seem'd to sound 

Unearthly, and she held communion mute 

With darksome Anteros, the unwing'd God, 

Love turn'd to hate. Moon after moon illumed 

The welkin, yet in black despair she sat, 45 

And fiercely ruminated all her wrongs, 

Though foremost in transgressions ; like the * accurst 

Of Colchis, with a brother's gore defiled, 

Who clombe Iason's couch, when he, whose love 

First soil'd her virgin fame, smit with new fires 50 

Divorced her from his chamber. Now aroused 

She stood on that lone mount, where her abode, 

* Medea. 



160 ATTILA. 

Rear'd by no mortal builder, glow'd with fire. 

Around her bower flames bickering high and bright 

Play'd lambent, or in wreathed volumes stream'd 55 

O'er the crystalline waters of the moat, 

Mysterious, inextinguishable, gift 

Of hellish powers ; to her of mortals then 

Alone reveal'd ; in later years by Greeks 

Degenerate on the Arabian navies hurl'd, 60 

What time with mimic * lightnings glared thy shores, 

Propontis^ and around the leaguer'd towers 

Of Byzance glitter'd the projected flame 

Unquenchable, wherewith Chalcedon gleam'd, 

And liquid splendours at the dead of night 65 

Lit Bosporus, illuminating far 

Astonied Thrace. Starless and mute the air 

Look'd darkly on her purpose, save where shone 

The wondrous flame. She turn'd her aspect first 

Unto the seven Triones veil'd in cloud, 70 

Then faced Orion's star, from other eyes 

Shrouded by mist ; around her next she cast 

Strange perfumes, such as Arabs never cull'd 

In Nabathaea, or the region bless'd 

With odoriferous Saba's spicy groves ; 75 

Then graved upon the earth with Runic signs 

The name of blasphemy, and that dark line 

Gehennaf ; next she traced the mystic shapes 

Of those seven angels multiform, who stand 

Beside the dying, Michael in lion's guise, 80 

* Called the Greek fire. 
t Origen says that a dark line called Gehenna crossed the diagram of 
the Ophites, a most impious sect. Concerning the seven angels, see 
Orig. ag. Celsus. 



BOOK VII. 



161 



And Suriel's taurine brow, and Raphael wing'd 

E'en as a dragon ; the outstretch'd pinions wide 

Of the eagle Gabriel, and shaggy * limbs 

Of Tautabaoth, nigh the doglike f spirit 

Cerberean, and Onoel the grazed ass. 85 

Then silently she dug the crucial f fosse 

Once in impure § Therapnse famed, wherein 

She pour'd the vital stream from three black whelps 

Sacred to Him below. A pyre she raised 

Of cypress, and of cedar ever green, 90 

Of poplar, || that still weeps balsamic tears 

For Phaeton, and paliurus f sharp 

With thorns, that from the holiest brows, there placed 

In mockery of a kingly crown, drew blood. 

Beneath a mystic veil she mingled next 100 

Fell colchic with the deadly flower ** of brass, 

Bugloss, and tansy, and the yellow bloom 

Of baneful crowfoot dabbled in the gore ; 

She stuff'd with these the carcases, and placed 

Them on the faggots, and their entrails spread, 105 

With water sprinkled, near the triple ff ditch. 

Then low she murmur'd words, which spoken aloud 

Would split heaven's brazen pavement, and resound 

* The bear. t Erataoth. See Origen against Celsus. 

$ The fosse was made in the shape of a cross, or of the body of a man 
with the arms extended, but the feet close together. Bothron tri- 
stoichon. — Orph. Argon. 

§ The abode of Medea. That of Helen had the same name. 

|| The four sorts of wood used by Medea. See Orph. Arg. 

IF Called Christ's thorn. 

** x a ^ Kav 9°G> copperas, but meaning in Orpheus some vegetable. 

tt Such is the ceremony, as described by the author of Orph. Arg., 

who must have been almost contemporary with Attila. 

M 



16*2 ATTTLA. 

Far thro' the infinite. This done, erect 

She stood, and, nought abash'd, thrice loud and plain 110 

The Prince of nether darkness she adjured, 

By all the power that dwells in those dread # names, 

Sabaoth and Hadonai, to appear. 

Scarce had she ceased, the pale unearthly fire 

Sulphureous burnt, and from its base the hill 115 

Rock'd at his coming. By her side invoked 

Stood the Archfiend ; not clad in terrors grim, 

As when he scatters flight, dismay, and death, 

Stern Ares mail'd for war ; bland aspect wore 

The felon Prince, with which he won the bed 120 

Of that fair-form'd adulteress sea-born, 

Venus Mylitta, with impurest rites 

Adored by nymphs in Babylon, or where, 

To appease the unchaste Goddess, Cyprus sold 

Her meretricious virgins to like shame. 125 

Then thus, with gentle speech, the author of ill 

Obsequious. " Beautiful of womankind ! 

" If woman, and not rather shape divine, . 

" As thine high bearing speaks thee, and the mind 

" Replete with wisdom far excelling man's ! 130 

" What wilt thou, fairest of created forms ?" 

To him the enchantress. " Deem not, treacherous power, 
" By adulation vile, to stay the thoughts 
" And master-passion of this iron heart, 
" On earth my slave, enthrall'd by labours dark 135 
" And many an occult mystery, to do 
" My bidding whatsoever ! Fiend, unroll 
" The hidden page of fate. The spirit of time 

* See Origen, who believed that there was power in those words. 






book vi r. 163 

" With desolating wings e'en now flaps round 

" The ancient gates of Rome. That cycle dread 140 

" Of ages, which Quirinus old divined, 

" On the triumphal wheels of brazen war 

" Returns accomplish'd. Remus, from her walls 

" Thy blood has faded, and that * nameless name 

" Breathed inwardly by pontiffs and the maid 145 

" Silentious on the hill Capitoline, 

" That name, her strength, which but to speak was death, 

" Is swallowed by oblivion. Shall the gore 

" Of righteous Bleda to Sicambria's domes 

" Give equal-during sway, and wherewithal 150 

" Shall Hilda, from those domes cast forth with scorn, 

" Reap vengeance ? how resume the sceptre lost ?' 

To her the fiend. " Not vengeance due for wrongs, 
" Not sorcery, how strong its spells soe'er, 
" Can touch the head, on which predestined hangs 155 
" Imperial fortune. Rome's appointed hours 
" Have fleeted, and her guardian angel quails. 
" Conjured with Erebus thy brother stands 
" Against Jehovah. To him, nothing loth, 
" Thrones and dominions, and what else of might 160 
" Walk Tartarus, shut out from upper heaven, 
" Give glory above his peers, ordain'd to o'erthrow 
" Messiah's dynasty. Blood-red the orb 



* Capitolium Scaudet cum tacita virgine pontifex. Hor. Valerius Sora- 
nus, tribune of the people, was crucified for speaking the secret name of 
Rome and her tutelary God. Pliny Hist. Nat. 3. 6. Servius in Georg. 
1. 498. and Mxi. 1. 281. Pliny and Macrobius state that the reason for 
secrecy was the fear of the Deity being exorcised to quit the city by their 
enemies. What the ineffable name was remains unknown, though many 
have been suggested. 

M2 



164 ATTILA. 

" Of Ares culminates, and, thro' his shroud, 

" Tempest and storm, reveal'd, Orion looks 165 

" Portentous. The great hour foreknown above 

" Already throws upon this nether world 

" Its fearful shadow, and Fate close behind 

" Comes darkling. If, still unappall'd by signs, 

" Whate'er Jehovah fulmining on high 170 

" May hurl upon the nations, he abide 

" Unmoved, unshaken, his victorious wheels 

" Soon shall surmount the Capitol, and Hell 

" Sit there enthroned in light. If recrean the 

" Foreswear his oath of hate to the All High, 175 

" The everlasting compact, seal'd erewhile 

" With powers of darkness, fails. Abandon'd, wreck'd, 

" He sinks ; his glory, long by me upheld, 

" Is forfeit, and Jehovah's arm hath power. 

" Then, vengeance, do thy work !" To him replied 180 

Hilda. " Too slow the march of Time, to who 

" Communes with spirits, and aboding ill 

" Burns inwardly, by strong desires consumed." 

To her, smiling in scorn, the spirit unclean. 
" If thirst of knowledge goad thee, from whose tree 185 
" Thy first fair parent in the vale of joy 
" Pluck' d sorrow, of hours and deeds unborn behold 
" The spectre luminous. Scenes, unreveal'd 
" To mortals, o'er the wizard lake shall glow 
" Reflected from those forms, that even now 190 

" Glide swiftly on the advancing wings of Time." 

This said, her buoyant thro' mid air the fiend 
Transported, where that Carnian grotto, hight 
In after days of Magdalena, gives 
Deep access unto Powers, that under earth 195 






BOOK VII. 165 

Secluded dwell. Profound its passage, like 

The jaws of Taenarus, thro' which the bard 

GEagrian pass'd to Hades and the realms 

Where shadows flit. Spacious and huge within 

The chamber subterranean frown'd. Its sides 200 

Abrupt, of rocks gigantic and inform, 

Grandeur sublime, in strange confusion heap'd ; 

Aloft, with countless hues and various shape, 

Hung stalactites, that mock'd the diamond's blaze, 

Sapphire, or emerald, and that paler stone 205 

That drinks the golden beam, pure chrysolite. 

There sun, nor summer heat, nor light of day 

Comes ever, nor the arrowy breath unkind 

Of winter frore. Along the cavern deep 

A pallid lustre spirituous gleam'd 210 

From him accurst. The wondrous beam illumed 

A lake more still than Lethe, in that cave 

Far bosom'd underground ; no living form 

E'er stains its limpid surface, save where comes 

Eyeless and dark unto its breathing place 215 

The proteus serpentine, that makes abode 

In the great deep below, of ocean's flood 

The nether pool, where many a monster dwells, 

Saurus # or huge Leviathan, unknown 

To the upper air. Astonish'd Hilda saw 220 

Depictured on the mirror's watery lap 

A vast and noble city ; but within 

Nor motion, nor the shape of living thing 

Disturb'd the stillness of its marble ways. 



v The proteus of subterranean waters seems to have some affinity to 
the extinguished race of Sauri. 



166 ATTILA. 

Untenanted the fenced turrets rose 225 

On a deserted plain ; and all around 

A voiceless desolation seem'd to rule, 

Tranquil as death : the works of man were there, 

His pompous dwellings, and the haunts of life, 

But not his form ; the verdant meadow lay 230 

Stiller than Eden's yet untrodden herbs, 

Nor cloven foot, nor undivided hoof 

Press'd their soft carpet ; but anon the dust 

Rose like a cloud on the horizon ; steel 

Gleam'd faintly, and an army's ample might, 235 

As if in truth reflected on the lake, 

Seem'd growing into motion. " There behold," 

Satan pursued, " the shadows cast before 

" By wizard Time." Beauteous it was and bright 

To view the varied pageant, which advanced 240 

On the blue water, as if thousand arms 

Were glimmering to the sun, and crested helms, 

And banners multiform with symbols strange, 

The ornament of battle. As when, borne 

O'er Arctic billows to the gelid * land 245 

Far westward, the mazed mariner descries 

At morn refracted on the azure wave, 

Mast, hull, and crew, with all her canvass spread 

The spectre of some ship, which far aloof 

Speeds towards the pole. So gleam'd Concordia's domes 

Invaded by the Hun. Her massive gates 

Yield to the stroke of battle-axe and crow, 

And booty, torn from her abandon'd halls, 

As from a tomb, throngs all her spacious streets ; 



* See Scoresby's Voy. to Greenland. 



BOOK VII. 167 

The silken drapery, the golden frieze, 255 

And imitative shapes of moulded brass, 

Till plunder hath its fill, and flames arise 

Enveloping her glories ; the blue smoke 

Shrouds her scorch'd mansions and down-toppling towers, 

And ashes blacken, where each palace stood. 260 

That vision pass'd ; next Hilda wondering spied 

Patavium's ramparts, glittering wide with arms 

On the dark mirror manifest. Around 

The Hunnish legions swarm ; and engines, late 

Proved well at Aquileia, seem to hurl 265 

Stupendous ruin ; with diminish'd bulk, 

Fearfully bright, the living picture glows ; 

And mimic death in all its ghastly forms 

Is there terrific ; gore, and yawning wounds, 

Commingling havoc, and destructive rout 270 

Without the din of war ; a silent scene 

Instinct with energy and deadly strife. 

Upon the battlements defensive stand 

Thousands of combatants, like termite ants 

That swarm around their castellated dome 275 

Minacious, nor with threats alone, but deeds 

Worthier a giant's nerve, resist their foe. 

High on the central fane stood eminent 

Colossal Mars, by reverent awe preserved, 

When Caesar's edict, head and limbs loft off, 280 

Smote heathendom's vain idols. Him the Huns 

Descry exulting, and salute their God, 

Fierce Arimanius, of the Scythian sword 

Dread spirit appeased by blood ; but from that height 

Struck by assailing engines, which threw stones 285 

Olympus-high, the brazen God of war 



168 ATTILA. 

Loud-clanging fell, and to the Hun presaged 

No foreign blow, but from domestic arms 

Precipitate reverse and sudden fall. 

Then glared once more the flaming element ; 290 

Patavium's pride, each temple high uprear'd 

With Christian cross, ramparts, and palaces, 

Fell crumbling or consumed. Anon there came 

A change upon the waters. Foremost goes 

The form of Attila, his breast adorn'd 295 

With dread teraphim ; his right-hand outstretch'd 

Points far unto Vincentia, while his left 

Curbs Grana to his will, and lurid light 

Streams from his iron sword. Short space aloof, 

Unmindful of the war, in motley vest 300 

Stood mountebanks. Of God or country's weal 

They little reck'd, but light of heart and foot 

Disported, confident in folly. These 

To strange arbitrement of active power 

The king calls forth. Agile and lithe howe'er, 305 

They cannot vault upon the steed, like him 

Who all accomplishment of man exceeds, 

In ponderous iron clothed; they cannot draw 

The arrow to the head, or bend the bow, 

Loved pastime of his youth. Surpass'd and shamed 310 

In manly feats of energy and skill, 

Them with spare diet unto martial toil 

The monarch dooms. Then came another change; 

The shores of Adria, the translucent waves 

Of deepest blue, and thy majestic port, 315 

Ravenna, lit by sunshine, on the lake 

Shews like a vision. From thy muniment 

The Caesar, with imperial splendour girt, 



BOOK VII. 



169 



Flies trembling unto Rome, nor dares await 

The heathen flood of battle. With him goes 320 

Honoria, from her gloomy cell drawn forth, 

A weeping captive in monastic veil. 

Next from Ravenna's walls in vest of peace 

Issued a suppliant train. Slowly they wind 

Towards the Hunnish tents ; there humbly kneels 325 

Her prelate to God's scourge. The pagan's face 

Seems to relax the inexorable lines 

That furrow his dark brow, as if appeased 

By prompt surrender. Next Vincentia's strength 

Is pictured ; girt with wide and watery fosse 330 

Her martial turrets rise. Foremost he wades 

Breast-deep, and first assails the lofty scarp, 

Terror and rout before him, and behind 

Ungovernable rage. Her ancient walls, 

Imaged in fair resplendency, bow low 335 

By fierce invaders razed, and the array 

Moves westward on Verona. Wide behind 

Grim desolation spreads. Then Burgomum, 

With vain defence, then Brixia's towers appear ; 

Whence, on the point of her Cycnean hill, 340 

Faith * infidel enshrined had late look'd down 

On that vast aqueduct, whose weight bestrode 

The valley, and bore mid air the crystal flood 

Unto the dome of Flora opposite, 

The chapel now of Saint Floranus hight 345 

By semi-christians ; O foul compromise 

Twixt faith of God and demons ! In the vale 

■ The temple of Fides. 



170 ATTILA. 

Triumpline, nigh the gryphon-guarded * walls 

Of antique Brixia, still unscathed and whole 

Naked Tyllinus stood, with laurel crown'd, 350 

An iron God, and his sinister foot 

Trampled a human skull. His mystic spear, 

Round which a serpent coil'd, upon the lake 

Reflected, threw a lurid glare of light. 

Then came the crash of battle ; a blood-gout, 355 

From that strong hand f that guards the charmed life 

Of heathendom's stern monarch, stain'd the sod 

Of many-templed Brixia. Then ensued 

Like contest and like overthrow ; the forms 

Of women, beautiful in disarray, 360 

Flying aghast, or forced by mailed men, 

And mangled infancy and hoary age 

Dragg'd in the dust. High o'er the captured town 

The pagan standard, red with Christian gore, 

Flaunts insolent. Anon two mountain floods, 365 

Lambrus and Addua, with deep-gurgling stream 

Seem'd to flow parallel, on that dark lake 

Gleaming like silver ; while between them stood 

A city undefiled by wasting war. 

A double wall environ'd her ; J within, 370 

A circus huge, and splendid theatre, 

And Palatine towers, and famed Herculean baths, 

And peristyles with marble figures deck'd, 

Made beauteous show. The unresisted host 

* The bearings of Brixia were a gryphon, which was represented on 
her walls. The iron statue of Tyllinus stood long after the time of Attila, 
in the Triumpline valley near the town. 

t Attila is said to have been wounded in the hand, in the siege of 
Brixia. % Sec Ausonius. 






BOOK VII. 171 

Invades her silent streets : high on the dais 375 

In Mediolanum sits stern Attila, 

Victor and king. Before his frowning eye 

A picture hangs ; upon the gorgeous throne 

Rome's crowned emperor was there pourtray'd, 

And Scythians, grovelling unto earth, the knee 380 

Submissive bend. Instant the vain offence 

Is cast unto the flames, and in its stead 

He bids the trembling limner to enthrone 

His own dread aspect with teraphim deck'd, 

And purpled emperors with precious weight 385 

Sore laden, ready at his feet to lay 

The tributary gold. Unmoved the while 

Proudly he views his conquest, and forebodes 

One triumph more, the eternal fall of Rome. 

Then rose to view the banks where made strange wreck, 
Smit by Jove's ardent thunderbolt, the son 
Presumptuous, who boasted might to guide 
The burning car of Helius * in heaven ; 
But him confusion seized, and in mid air 
Utter dismay ; while, tossing from their necks 395 

Unquenchable rays and wreathed flakes of fire 
They rush'd eccentric, thro' the star-paved waste 
Without the Ecliptic ; and he, thunder-struck, 
From that amazing altitude fell sheer 
Into Eridanus. On that famous marge 400 

Where, rushing from the north, Ticinus pours 
His mingled waves, with gilded standards crown'd 
The pagan tabernacles now sent back 
The beaming sun, which never since that morn 
Hath devious stray'd, but in appointed course 405 

* The Sun. 



172 ATTILA. 

Spring-time and harvest brings, or steers aloof 

Towards Centaums and the Southern pole. 

Lovely and florid, as a Mayday queen, 

Ticina # look'd upon her kindred flood, 

But, unresisting, all her glories yield 410 

To heathen force ; wealth, power, and ornament, 

Lie prostrate, with the flower of beauty reap'd 

By discord sprinkled with the dew of death. 

That pageant faded, and thy strength appear'd, 

Benacus, swelling like the ocean's surge, 415 

First of Hesperian lakes ! The reed-fringed wave 

Of Mincius shew'd distinct, the fields once till'd 

By him,f who sang the head torn fiercely back 

From the marmorean neck, which, as it roll'd 

Adown CEagrian Hebrus, made the banks 420 

Of that lone river still give back the wail, 

Eurydice ! and the song-hallow'd farm, 

Which heard the woes of Atys J borne amain 

On the swift barque, and striking with mad hand 

Cybele's brass, from bridegroom turn'd to bride, 425 

Strange sterile hymeneals ! Mute is now 

The shell, that made harmonious echoes wake, 

And other feet pollute that classic lawn 

With iron tread. The Hunnish camp is pitch'd 

E'en where they warbled erst, and told how raved 430 

Sea-like Benacus, or how Sirmio smiled. 

Gorgeous and vast the battailous array ; 

Not he who look'd from Peor, with his face 

Set to the wilderness, there call'd to curse 

God's people from that height, beheld the plain 435 



• Properly Ticinum, but the neuter gender floes not suit a porsoni- 
fication. t See Virgil's Georgics, 1. 4. $ See Catullus. 



BOOK VII. 173 

So whitening with their goodly tents, spread forth 

Like glorious cedars by the river's side, 

As Hilda on the eyrie lake pourtray'd 

Saw Attila's vast camp. The countless war 

Stretch'd southward, and its standards proudly fixt 440 

Look'd unto Rome. Upon the mirror's face 

The white tents gleam'd, like flakes of fleecy cloud 

Upon the azure, when clear Aquilon 

Drives back the nebulous South : but, as she gazed, 

Slow darkness came, like an autumnal haze, 445 

Over the pageant, and it seem'd to sink 

Deep gulph'd in the unfathom'd element. 

Long after look'd the sorceress, but light 

Came none, or colour, on the level glass 

Of that unruffled pool. " Why fades," she said, 450 

" Yon vision ? Spirit, shew the march of war 

" E'en to the gates of that Romulean town, 

" Whose domination has twelve ages sway'd 

" This habitable world." " What shall ensue, 

" Known only to Jehovah," he replied, 455 

" Eludes the eye of wisdom. Thou hast seen 

" The tenor of events, that smoothly glide 

" Upon the even face of destiny, 

" Things bruited wide in heaven, and known of yore ; 

66 But there are periods in the book of fate 460 

" Momentous, unreveal'd, though plain to Him 

" Who rides upon the cherubim enthroned. 

" Thus much, recorded in Heaven's high archives 

" Sufficeth ; Rome hath her appointed years, 

" And now her strength is waning. Well I know 465 

" The day* must be, when manifest on earth 

* 2 Thess. ii. 3, &e. 



174 ATTILA. 

" Shall reign that mighty one, whose corning is 

" After my working, with all power and signs, 

" Wondrous illusions, and in God's own house 

" Shall shew himself as God. Whether the hour, 47 

" Which must exalt me on this nether sphere, 

< J Come instant, or delay'd, is the great cause 

" To man and spirit leagued against the Highest ; 

" Highest no more, so Attila stand firm, 

" Vicegerent of our world ; for whom I strive 475 

" With portents and with shadows, sure to win 

" Subtle success ; not, as vain fables tell, 

" Assailing with the front of fiery war 

" Jehovah's legions, and the sapphire throne 

" From whence he hurls the thunder. If he shrink 480 

" Unworthy, fate another tool will find 

" Fitter hereafter, but our present toils 

" Fall unfulfill'd : yet is the hour of Rome 

" Now seal'd. What conqueror smites her mural crown 

" Wisdom hath not unveil'd ; that lies yet hid 485 

il Amid the glimpses of futurity 

" Reveal'd to spirits ; imperfect foresight gain'd 

" Of time's great scheme, when woman, sore deceived, 

" Pluck'd the forbidden fruit, to her lorn self 

" Acquiring shame, until that hour unknown 490 

" In flowery Eden, and another law 

" Of knowledge warring with her innocence." 

He ceased ; for lo ! upon the glamorous pool 
A globe of light seem'd gathering, and anon 
Expanded, opening shapes, which, dim at first, 495 

Grew into clearness. A rich tent was there 
Of Bactrian fashion, and a maiden bright 
With all accomplishment of form and grace, 



BOOK VII. 175 

Array'd in garb of orient. At her feet 

Knelt yellow-hair'd Andages flush'd with hope ; 500 

One lily hand he press'd, and seem'd to plead 

Love's soft petition ; and, she, scarce averse, 

Turn'd from his ardent gaze her blushing cheek, 

Languidly mute. A cross of silver hung 

Beneath her bosom's silken folds half hid. 505 

Upon the groundsell Attila's stern form 

Stood scowling ; from his eyeballs lighten'd rage, 

Burning concupiscence, and jealous fires : 

Nor she from his fierce aspect, thus surprised, 

Shrank not abash'd; the roseate colour fled 510 

Her alter'd face, as fearful she uprose. 

Long on that vision look'd with anxious mien 

The mailed sorceress. Those forms unchanged 

Grew into magnitude of life and limb, 

But motionless ; like rigid statues fixt 515 

With all their passions glowing. " Wherefore comes," 

Astonied Hilda cries, " that dream ? Why stays 

" Its motion, or why fade its spectral forms ? 

" Portending what ? to whom ?" for, as she spoke, 

Grown dim they vanish'd in the gloomy pool. 520 

To her the baleful spirit. " From that abyss 

" No phantom comes with import light or vain. 

" There is dread potency in that thou saw'st, 

" And danger to the mighty. In old times 

" By woman hath man fallen, else secure, 525 

" And shall hereafter. Thou hast view'd the shape 

" Of fair Mycoltha, Bactria's royal nymph, 

" Beloved of Attila, if lust be love.'' 

Hard were it for the painter's art to limn 
That bright enchantress, by the mystic pool 530 



176 ATTILA. 

Bending her visage flush'd with guilty hope, 

Thoughts perilous and vague ; while by her side 

The master spirit of all evil stood 

Contemptuous. Once again the hues of life, 

Relumed, were quickening on that Stygian lake. 535 

A dismal cell with groined arches dark 

Was fashion 'd there ; its narrow casement shew'd 

Rome's palaces beneath. Within reclined 

Thy wasted loveliness, Honoria, once 

First of the fair, and in Ravenna's court 540 

Most beautiful, most gay ! The garb austere 

Of penitence shrouds now the shrunken limbs, 

The bosom late full-zoned, and throbbing high 

Under the jewell'd kerchief; and that cheek 

Lit with the bloom of love, that fragrant lip 545 

That woo'd the kiss of guilt, sorrow hath paled 

Remorseful, and the worm of conscience gnaws 

Unceasing the sad heart, which blithely once 

Beat heedless. Near, the mitred innocence 

Of Roman Leo stood. Soothed by his speech 550 

Persuasive, the meek sinner seem'd to draw 

Assuaging comfort, and the rayless eye 

To beam refresh'd by hope. The holy rood 

Hallow'd that mournful chamber, and anon 

It wax'd unto portentous magnitude, 555 

While round the front of Him divine, thereon 

Express'd, celestial fulgor radiated ; 

And instantly the rebel Prince appalPd 

Hasty retreat, into the realms of night, 

And headlong made, unequal to confront 560 

The glory of the Most High. Behind him fled 

Delusions, portents, and the host of lies, 






BOOK VII. 177 

Wherewith against the Holiest he moves 

Unhallow'd warfare, labouring to exalt 

Sin in high places manifest as God. 565 

No ray was in the cave, where Hilda now 
Stood darkling; but, to her, deep knowledge, worse 
Than foolishness, had long made darkness clear 
As noonday's splendour, and she knew to soar 
Upon the midnight blast, like those dread maids 570 
Ill-ominous, who bear from Odin's hall 
The deadly summons, and select the slain. 
High o'er Norician Alps she wings her flight 
To Hindarfell ; there plotting deep revenge 
Pores o'er unholy lore, and ever holds 575 

Communion with the accurst, rejecting heaven. 



N 



ATTILA. 



BOOK EIGHTH. 



Mysterious slumber ! image of the change 

That comes to all, when the devouring grave 

Which never yet hath said, " It is enough," 

Receives its own, (dust render'd unto dust 

Corruptible, the glowing strength of life 5 

To the worm's darkness) and the soul descends 

To its long rest in Hades ! Art thou to man 

By his beneficent Creator given 

As a sweet solace, a repose from all 

Of labour or of pain, that here assails 10 

His weak mortality ? a gentle calm 

Oblivious, when the malice of his foes 

Loses for some short space its potency, 

And peace is with him, emblem of that peace 

Which the world cannot give ; and visions fair 15 

Come round the couch of wo with angel smiles, 

Breathing beatitude ? Or art thou sent 

As a foretaste of that, which unto all 

Must be hereafter ? when the just alone 

Shall rest from every labour, and his works 20 

Follow, a goodlier train, than ever brought 

The virgin to her bridal, or the great 

Of this world to their crowned majesty ! 



BOOK VIII. 179 

For he shall sleep the slumber of the grave, 

Till the last trump arouse him, and the space 25 

Of thousand years unto his spirit entranced 

Shall be refreshment calm, or visited 

By visions from the blest ; a long slow term 

To mortal estimation, which is based 

Upon the hearing and the sight of things 30 

That are but as an atom amongst those 

Infinite and eternal ; to Thine eye, 

With whom a thousand years are as a day, 

The slumber of a dewy summer eve 

Fresh with delight. Perhaps to the unjust 35 

Disquietude more dreadful, than the thought 

Of lone eternity to those who tread 

The weary vale of sorrow on this earth, 

Frightful unrest, while phantoms, that seen here, 

Would drive scared reason from her seat, crowd round 40 

The unlimb'd spirit, which hath no escape 

From ills that overpower it, like the fiend 

That sits upon the breast, when nature lacks 

Wholesome digestion, and weighs down the wretch 

Fast held by impotence. 45 

No friendly power 
Shed influence upon the gilded couch 
Whereon reclined Aetius. Bosom'd deep 
Amid the fairest hills of Italy 

His villa rose ; a stately mansion, deck'd 50 

With spacious peristyles, marmorean stairs, 
And baths of porphyry, where Zephyrs sent 
Through ambient jasmine odoriferous airs, 
Sweet recreation ; there the huge hippodrome, 
Where neighing coursers vied ; and gardens bright 55 

N 2 



180 ATTILA. 

With thousand hues, where, in the wide expanse 

Prison'd, as if at liberty, the choir 

Various of note and plume, with gleamy wings 

Glanced in the sun, or from umbrageous bowers 

Pour'd melody ; and sparkling fountains play'd, 60 

And the clear stream ran murmuring. Not such 

The frugal hearths, which to their country's aid 

Sent Cincinnatus rude, or, Decius, thy 

Devoted spirit; but with conquest came 

Soft luxury, and selfish love of ease, 65 

Ambition, that trod down the public weal, 

And sensual vice. The lord of that domain 

On silken tissues lay, lull'd to his sleep 

With dulcet melody of shells, attuned 

By wanton slaves. But the unquiet soul 70 

Vex'd by its evil will, slept not the sleep 

That gives regenerate strength and through the limbs 

Diffuses calm. The anxious scene of life, 

The steep ascent, which he had trod to power, 

And praise, ill merited by evil deeds, 75 

Pass'd in review before him. That far Thrace, 

Where, clothed with Roman pomp, his Scythian sire 

Marshall'd the armies of degenerate Rome, 

The fond caress of her who gave him birth 

From the best veins of Latium ; all the sports 80 

Of his bold infancy ; whether to guide 

The courser, thundering o'er the level mead, 

Or throw the disk, or wield the Gothic pole, 

Or, prouder, with Italian targe and sword 

Deal mimic war. Once more the mystic words 85 

Of the wierd women came upon his ears 

Mutter'd erewhile, that even he was born 



BOOK VIII. 181 

To be that great one, for whom then the world 

Look'd in suspense. Then came his first assay 

In those red fields of battle, where he won 90 

A name, still sounded by the sons of Time 

After the lapse of ages. Next arose, 

Pictured to fancy's eye, thy glorious camp, 

Great Alaric ! where long his fervent youth, 

Hostage from her who whilom sway'd the world, 95 

Abided, wielding the Sarmatian pike, 

Or striving with the Hun, to bend his bow 

To the barb'd arrow's point. There first he view'd 

The glory of the infidel, and learn'd 

To scorn degraded Rome. Prophetic hopes 100 

Swell'd in his heart. Sprung from united streams 

Faithful and pagan, he forethought to sway 

Both sceptres, mounting by a Scythian throne 

To the Caesarean purple. With design 

Darkling and close, he wound the subtle chains 105 

Of friendship, haply surest in rude breasts, 

Round many a barbarous heart. Nor did not rise 

The circles huge of giant * Hunniwar 

Plain to his sense, as when he first abode 

In green Pannonia, where the mighty Hun 110 

Sat, nine times girded with stupendous walls ; 

The rites done there in blood, the orgies dire, 

Which he had known, and learnt the evil creed 

That nestled in his bosom, cover'd deep 

By specious show of faith; the gallant hours 115 

In jovial forest, or the bloodier sports 

Of Ares, spent with Attila, thro' youth 

Sec Jornandes. 



182 ATTILA. 

His rival and his comrade ; the rich halls 

Of John,* who in Ravenna's princely court 

Lost life and power usurp'd; while he, too late, 120 

Against his country, from Pannonian wilds, 

CalPd forth to fell society of arms 

The Hun, yet guiltless of domestic blood. 

Nor saw he not the glorious fields of Gaul, 

The staff by treason earn'd, wherewith he ruled 125 

Rome's armies, Arnolf weltering nigh the trench 

Of leaguer'd Arelas, Bavarian glens 

Scour 'd by his eagles, which ere long brought low 

Juthungian vaunts ; Mosella red with war, 

Gelons, and Francs, and Salian chivalry, 130 

And Sauromatians with the incontinent Hun 

Mingled in death ; or nigh the banks of Rhine 

Gundioc the wealthy, with his boasted train 

Of Nibelungian warriors mail'd in gold, 

Biting Burgundian dust. Then dimly rose 135 

(And, as he saw, malignant hate obscured 

His troubled brow) thy blood-polluted form, 

By double-tongued deceitfulness push'd on 

To treason, rued too late on Hippo's strand, 

Wrong'd Boniface ! whose hasty wrath invoked 140 

Stern Genseric, to bring thee lawless aid ; 

And, after, with the gory flood of life, 

In vain victorious on the stones of Rome 

Dyed'st thy false rival's spear. Half roused from sleep 

He seem'd to hear the vengeful cry, which then 145 



* John surnamed the tyrant. Aetius, who was his master of the 
palace, brought an army of Huns to his aid, but in meantime he had 
lost his life. 



BOOK VIII. 183 

Had bay'd him in that chamber ; once again 

To fly, as when outlaw'd from Italy 

He sought her foes, the hospitable hearth 

Of him who sway'd the sword of Ariman, 

And by new treason from that dread retreat 150 

Paved fresh the road to power. His spirit saw 

Once more the banks of Liger, the saved shrines 

Of Orleans, glittering to the noonday sun ; 

Once more, his latest attribute, the plain 

Where Matrona had seen the scourge of heaven 155 

Staid by the Goths, what time his secret fraud 

Marr'd half the fruit of victory. And now 

His cheek was flush'd with fever ; the strong pulse 

Strove at his heart. He deem'd himself array'd 

In purple, brighter than the Tyrian shell 160 

Hath ever stain'd; and in his grasp secure 

The steel adored by Scythians; while the kings 

Of many a nation barbarous, amid 

Discordant shouts and various-tongued applause, 

Raised him to Caesar's throne. Sudden he shrank, 165 

And from his countenance the wholesome hue 

Departed, and a deadly shiver crept 

Over his limbs ; for on the gorgeous steps, 

Which then he clombe, lay headless Stilicho, 

Who at Pollentia turn'd to bloody rout 170 

That other # child of victory, but struck 

Amidst his Hunnish sentries, and, of like 

Imaginations frustrate, in like act 

Fell headlong ; and, beside, anotherf corse, 

* Alaric. 
t Eucherius the son of Stilicho, put to death also by Honorius, after 
the death of his father. 



184 ATTILA. 

Slain in fresh years, was folding its cold arms 1 75 

Round the patrician's son, and on the crown, 

That seem'd within his youthful grasp, was gore, 

Gore on the bridal wreath, which o'er his brow 

Suspended* hung. Blest ! doubly blest ! who sleep 

The sleep of innocence, and o'er whose couch 180 

Protecting angels hover, to ward off 

Unholy things and images of ill, 

That, led by the deceiver, crowd around, 

A fearful swarm. The man of tented fields 

In slumber stirr'd, as if his war-used hand 185 

Were striving for the hilt ; but sleep weigh'd down 

The ineffectual grasp, and impotent 

He wrestled with the dreadful phantasy. 

It pass'd, and from his brow the warrior threw 
Night's shadows, and, half-rising, seem'd to gaze, 190 
As if his wandering mind recall'd not yet, 
Whether the fortunes, to his youth foretold, 
Were even then achieved, or by the extreme 
Of fate reversed. The demon at his heart, 
Ambition, soon brought back the troubled thought 195 
Unto its purpose, and cast far behind 
The evil issue of that great bad f man, 
His antecessor in the slippery path 
Now trodden to like goal. His country's weal 
Him moved not, or the sack of that fair tract 200 

From Meduacus to the woody slope 
Of the hoar Apennine. In torpid ease, 
Spell-bound by secret policy, reposed 



' The son of Aetius was betrothed to the daughter of the Emperor 
Valentinian. t Stilicho. 



BOOK VIII. 185 

His daring energies, which might have braved 

The unbeliever in the open field, 205 

Or staid him, in the barren gorges pent 

Of those huge obstacles, which nature set 

To shroud thy loveliness, thy tempting realms, 

Enslaved Ausonia, from the iron blight 

Breathed by the North. In vain, for ages still 210 

Shall follow ages, and the German's steel 

Gather the vintage of thy fertile slopes, 

And (hard fore-boding !) his tyrannic might 

Smother the germs of freedom, and arrest 

Fair Science, with the social trust that man 215 

Rests on his fellow ; for of all thy sons 

There shall not rise one vindicator, one 

With truer heart than that patrician, but 

Blazon'd like him upon the rolls of fame, 

To burst thy chains ; and thou must writhe unsaved 220 

Beneath the oppressor, till Jehovah's will 

Shall lift the ban, which o'er thy freedom throws 

A gloom by no illumination cheer'd 

But glimpses of the past. With thoughts confused, 

And limbs by slumber unrecruited, rose 225 

The Master of Rome's armies. Forth he strode 

Into the airy peristyle, adorn'd 

With many a marble form, colossal busts 

Of Latin patriots in the olden time, 

And semblances of Grecian heroes, carved 230 

In Parian stone. The morning breeze came fresh 

Upon his spirit ; while, stretching far his sight 

Thro' the crepusculous haze, he saw the tents, 

Where, by inaction thrall'd, his host reposed, 

Having achieved nought worthy his renown. *2oo 



186 ATTILA. 

A voice of other ages seem'd to breathe 

From those cold statues, which around him told 

Of fields once fought for liberty ; they bent 

Stern and unchangeable on him their brows 

Wreathed with no ill-eam'd laurel ; and the soul 240 

Within him stirr'd, by generous thoughts impell'd, 

While his eye rested on the rugged front 

Of that famed Spartan chief, who dearly sold 

Life for his country, in the narrow glen 

Twixt Thessaly and Phocis. Twice he turn'd 245 

Towards the portal, and perchance had bid 

His bold lieutenants from the bristling camp 

Advance the * labarum, and northward pour 

His legions, prompt to peril life and fame 

Against his country's foe : but twice turn'd back 250 

Him to his evil purpose the sly fiend 

That whisper'd at his ear. Illusive hopes 

Staid him upon that threshold, ne'er again 

To pluck victorious bays, or drink the applause 

That hail'd him as the bulwark once of Rome. 255 

The die of fate was cast ; as he turn'd back, 
The Genius of his country sigh'd ; for soon 
All the fair champaign, all the glorious towns 
North of Eridanus shall smoking lie : 
And, nearer still, f ^Emilia and the $ March 260 

Blaze with the Hun's invasion. He, whose skill 
Wielded her force, whose active mind infused 
Like ardour in her sons, whose limbs were prompt 



* The Christian standard introduced by Constantino, 
t The country between Pisa and Dertona traversed by the iEmilian 
road, also the road from Aquileia to Rimini. $ Of Ancona. 



BOOK VIII. 187 

For all exertion, patient to endure 

Extremes of heat and cold, hunger or thirst, 265 

And long successive toil, in those gilt halls 

Stays paralyzed by treason ; and the hope, 

That, cover'd, nestles in his guilty breast, 

Shall mar his fortunes. Heart-consuming Vice ! 

How dost thou from the soul its nutriment, 270 

Which should have budded into perfect worth, 

Steal unperceived ; and, when Time throws aside 

Thy specious mantle, leave its sapless age 

Denuded of respect ! As where in brakes, 

That lie deep cradled by JEmodian hills, 275 

The dodder, like a baneful serpent, throws 

Its coil upon some shrub or vigorous herb, 

The lonely glen's best ornament ; entwined 

Around each limb the parasitic wreath 

Diffuses fragrance, and encircles it 280 

With glory not its own ; while, from each pore 

Stealing the healthy sap, creeps slowly on 

The sweet contagion, and behind it spreads 

Pithless decay. Long musing he decreed 

To let the Scythian's unimpeded might 285 

Waste northern Italy, till gorged success 

Undiscipline his armies ; to urge flight 

On his luxurious lord, beyond the Alps 

Unto Provincia, where fair Arelas 

Lords o'er the Rhone : while he, securely camp'd, 290 

Before the quaking city waits the acclaim, 

Which, in the needful moment, should erelong 

Salute him Csesar ; and the snares, then spread, 

Which in his haram shall assail the Hun 

Smitten by treason. Loud he call'd, and forth -21)5 



188 ATTILA. 

Came slaves obsequious, chosen for their gifts 

Of several quality from each far clime. 

Swart Libyans, and the Persian's sallow hue, 

Alans, and Gauls, or from what realm soe'er 

Selected. Next his gallant sons drew nigh, 300 

Pagan Carpileon, and his other hope 

In vain betrothed to the high maid of Rome. 

Then messengers and seal'd dispatches, sent 

By dark conspirators from every court 

Allied or infidel ; all insincere, 305 

And stored with adulation, treacherous plans, 

And tidings false or true. Various their drift, 

But one their evil end ; each sought to raise 

Himself thro' treason, of the public weal 

Regardless; heathens, by patrician gold 310 

Ensnared ; close Arians, plotting the downfall 

Of the good pontiff and thy school impure, 

Foul Manes, smarting from the wholesome lash 

Sway'd late by hierarchal hands in Rome ; 

Conflicting sects, all labouring to obtain, 315 

Not liberty, but strength to overthrow 

Their rivals, and usurp unholy power ; 

And who for lucre, who for vengeance, sold 

Their master to his foe. But chief he scann'd 

One letter, penn'd with many a symbol strange 320 

By that corrupted * scribe, the treacherous gift 

Himself had placed nigh Attila. The Hun 

Made wary through the murder, basely plann'd 

At Byzance by false eunuchs and their f lord, 

(On whom that treason fix'd a fouler stain 325 



Constantius. + Theodosius the younger. 



BOOK VIII. 189 

Than all the blood of Salonica's babes 

Upon his * ruthless sire) constrain'd the slave 

By dread of crucifixion, to indite 

Unreal rumours, blent with specious truth, 

Objecting guile to guile. But not of fraud, 330 

To that consummate veteran, the web 

Was arduous to unravel ; well he knew, 

School'd in deceit, to lay no trust on man, 

But from the tissue, howe'er deftly wrought, 

To draw conclusions just, whereby to shape 335 

His stormy way. As he, who sails aloof 

Upon the perilous Atlantic, vex'd 

By baffling gales, what time his gallant barque 

Or on the summit of some dark blue wave 

Storm-beaten rides, or plunges into the chasm 340 

From that tremendous altitude, and straight 

Lies in the trough becalm'd, as if the grave 

Had swallow'd her ; nathless undaunted sets 

His fixt regard upon the starry vault, 

And notes the hour, and frequent calculates 345 

Distance and bearings, and with skill corrects 

The errors of his course. So darkling steer'd 

Aetius, thro' the shoals and fearful blasts 

Of his tempestuous time, but never found 

That anchorage, secure from every change 350 

Of fitful gales, that haven, which the just 



* Theodosius the Great, who consigned to death in an angry moment 
the inhabitants of Salonica to the number of from 8 to 15,000. His 
subsequent repulse from the cathedral by the bishop of Milan, generally 
called St. Ambrose, until he had humbled himself in the dust as a 
penitent, is a refreshing circumstance in the history of a period when 
public virtues were at a low ebb. 



1 90 ATTILA. 

Alone inherit ; for the sons of earth, 

Who, vex'd with vain disquietude, pursue 

Ambition's fatuous light, thro' miry pools 

That yawn for their destruction, stray foredoom'd 355 

Amid delusive shadows to their end. 

That certain hope, which shineth evermore 

A beacon to the righteous, over them 

Its peaceful radiance never shall diffuse ; 

And bitterness shall be the bread they chew, 360 

While striving to devour the portion, snatch'd 

By strong injustice from their fellow-men, 

A baneful meal ; and their satiety 

Shall be a curse, more fatal than the void 

Of meagre famine, an unwholesome weight, 365 

That haply shall bring dreams beyond the grave 

To the charged soul, and phantoms of the things 

Which have been on this earth, and which shall be 

Hereafter, when the trumpet wakes the dead. 



ATTILA 



BOOK NINTH. 



Vain life of mortal man ! how small the worth 

Of all which thy brief span inheriteth, 

If thou reclinest on the lap of sloth 

LulPd by luxurious vice ; or dragg'st the chain 

Of meretricious pleasures, that erelong 5 

Pall on the wearied sense ! Better to rest 

Beneath the honour'd sepulchre, than live 

Dead to man's noblest uses, and enthrall'd 

By selfish cares, inglorious, unbeloved, 

Wasting the gifts, which with no sparing hand 10 

To each his Maker gave, and bade him strive 

Amid the turmoil of his troublous way, 

Not for the crown of sin, the blood-stain'd robe 

Which conquest wears ; not for the light applause 

That veers with every gale. A better prize 15 

There is for man, a glory of this world 

Well worth the labour of the blessed, won 

By arduous deeds of righteousness, that bring 

Solace, or wisdom, or the deathless boon 

Of holy freedom, to his fellow men, 20 

And praise to the Almighty. Such a wreath 

Encircled late the patriotic * brow 

* Washington. 



19*2 ATTILA. 

Of him, who, greater than the kings of earth, 

To young Atlantis in an upright cause 

Gave strength and liberty, and laid the stone 25 

Whereon shall rise, if so Jehovah will, 

An empire mightier than the vast domain 

Sway'd once by vicious Caesars ! Such a wreath 

Made thee more glorious, memorable Pole,* 

In the decrepitude of countless wounds 30 

Borne for thy fallen fatherland, than when 

Entire in strength and hope, thou trodd'st the field 

Of battle against the false imperatrix ! 

So fair a crown, unstain'd by blood, awaits 

Whoever, with no private aim, sincere 35 

Strive for their country's weal, content to dwell 

Beneath the shadow of the good achieved 

In calm retirement, on the lap of peace, 

Save when their country breathes that holy voice 

Which summons all her sons. And not unblest 40 

By thee, eternal Father, be the toil 

Of these my quiet hours, wherein I strive 

To pluck false honour from the evil brows, 

And glorify thy name. Enough for me, 

If this my humble verse should turn one heart 45 

To throb for righteousness, to seek those bays 

Of glory in this world, which are inwreathed 

In the similitude of that perfect crown 

Which is not of the earth. 

Wo to the land 
Which hath no arm to shield her, and no head 50 

To lead her counsels, when the evil days 

ECoschiusko. 



book rx. 193 

Approach her, and invasion's fiery flood 
Is pour'd around. Nigher and nigher Rome 
Came the fierce din, the alarm, the smoke roll'd wide 
By devastation's blast. Italia's breast 55 

Was furrow'd deep with scars, like the proud oak 
When smit by fire from heaven. In sensual sloth, 
Unheeding of her groans, reclined at ease 
Imperial Valentinian ; and his mind 
Too cowardly to dread the ills, that seem'd 60 

Striding toward his porch, shut out the scene 
Which to confront he dared not; and drank in 
Base adulation from the lips impure 
Of slaves and eunuchs, listening to the lute 
Amid voluptuous banquets sweetly tuned, 65 

Or with the nightly fever of the dice 
Smother'd the better thoughts, which in the heart 
Will rise perforce, or with adulterous will 
Plotted dishonour and domestic shame 
To those who fought for him. Is this the man, 70 

Whose fame drew Meroveus unto Rome 
From Clodion's hardy court, to wield the sword 
In mimic fight, and learn how Romans strove ? 
Is this the brow, round which the laurels twine 
First wreathed by warlike Julius ? this the hand, 75 

That sways the sceptre of stern Romulus ? 
Where are ye, spirits of the glorious dead ! 
Mutius, or Codes, or the virgin strength 
Of Clelia, breasting the swift Tiber's flood 
Despite the Etruscan ! or who died, full-robed 80 

Upon your curulc chairs, with hoary heads 
Unused to bow ! Are ye still floating o'er 
The mighty mother that inform'd you once ? 

o 



194 ATTILA. 

And have ye vision, to behold her sons 

Battening in vice degenerate, what time 85 

Her being is at stake, by strength assail'd 

More fearful than Porsena, or the Gaul ? 

Or, if ye sleep beneath your marble tombs, 

Hear ye not, even in the quiet grave, 

Her Genius call ye from the realms of night 90 

To burst your bands, and shew how Romans once 

Conquer'd or died ? One only dared rebuke 

The purpled sinner, thine impartial voice, 

Unfearing Leo ! Yet in vain it pour'd 

Bold eloquence, of power to rouse a heart 95 

Not sunk in degradation, to stand firm 

Against the painim ; him, so lost in vice, 

Death only, the just vengeance from her lord 

Due to that injured matron, who effaced 

Her guiltless shame with suicidal blood, 100 

Shall startle from his dalliance. Round him grew 

Close-muttering discontent. The people's voice 

Wax'd mutinous ; but, deaf to warnings, he 

Seem'd to inherit the vile ease, that lull'd 

Sardanapalus on the slippery brink 105 

Heedless of fate ; but not the proud resolve 

That made him nobler in his overthrow, 

Than when, reclined within his gilded hall, 

He joy'd the banquet, the soft couch of down, 

The baneful luxury of sloth, array'd 110 

In kingly pomp. There was a fearful flux 

Into old Rome, the helpless, and the fair, 

And limbs of strength, that should have dared to die 

Resisting for their hearths and country, now 

Blent in unseemly flight. Before them went 115 






BOOK IX. 195 

Haggard Dismay, and in the mingled rout 

Came Famine and Disease, while vague Alarm 

Scatter'd terrific rumours, that outsped 

Each dire event, or gave portentous form 

To wild illusions, deadlier than the train 120 

Of homicidal war. From the four winds 

Onward they hurried, and their desert homes 

Left in sepulchral stillness. Each averr'd 

The Hun was on his steps, a hideous shape, 

Engender'd by a whelp of hellish breed, 125 

With fangs inhuman, flesh'd in infant blood, 

And visage like a hound. Some said he sat 

In bright Ravenna on the kingly throne ; 

Some knew him camp'd upon the rugged brow 

Right over Fsesulse ; and some yestrene 130 

Had view'd his dark battalions on the plain 

Chafing round Mutina, whose saintlike priest 

To veil her from the heathen had drawn down 

A shroud of mist from heaven. Some said he held 

The champain, which the rich Apulian ploughs, 135 

Laden with spoil ; or on Calabrian hills 

Sent forth his fierce lieutenants. Some obscure 

Whisper'd, but knew not wherefore, he was gone 

Tow'rds Mambuleium, and his mighty force 

Was drawing to a head, where Mincius slow 140 

Washes Ardelica. But none had stood 

To yield him battle on the plain, or stay 

His squadrons pent amongst the mountains ; none 

Dared to await his elf-begotten host 

Clothed in Cimmerian darkness. Then was heard 145 

The scoff of the blaspheming multitude 

Apostate from Jehovah, in the hour 



196 



ATTILA. 



Of peril, when most needs the shield of faith. 

Hearts, which irresolute had halted long 

Between Rome's idols and their God, now made 150 

Open relapse ; and with tumultuous chaunt 

Tripudiating, like Saliar priests of old, 

Men pour'd the Arval # chorus, to appease 

Vemarmar, the relentless fiend of war ; 

And matrons, in the pensile f chariot, bore 155 

Things consecrated once with mystic awe 

To the great Mother ; thro' the startled ways 

Resounded once again the trumpet-drum J 

Of old Cybele ; and the Floral rites 

Licentious with unchaste processions fill'd 160 

The forum, where erelong Rome's vanquisher 

Will quell the voice of revelry. It seem'd 

As if, let loose from some iEolian den, 

The demons of her ancient worship came 

Upon the breathing wind, like harpies, pour'd 165 

On every shrine, which had been cleansed erewhile 

From their pollution, and all Hell let loose 

With hydra heads repullulated. Raised 

In maddening gusts the Bacchanalian shout 

Gave voice to echoes, which now half an age 170 

Had sent Messiah's name in hymns to heaven. 

Scared by invasion's terror, zealous Faith 

And Chastity were taking wings, to fly 

Devoted Rome ; the trumpet bray'd to arms, 

But none went forth to battle ; and her lord 175 

Lay banqueting and vile amidst the vile, 

* See the very ancient Salic song of the Arval brothers. Consult 
Nimrod, vol. iii. p. 210. + See ^Eneid, 1. 8. 

t Typanum tnbam Cybeles. — Catullus. 



BOOK IX. 197 

Nor heeded her defence, nor heard the tongues 

Blaspheming nigh his gate. But not unmark'd 

By Leo swell' d the mutinous acclaim 

Of that rebellious people, who now clombe 180 

The marble steps unto the Capitol 

To do unseemly rites. Onward they went 

With banners waving o'er forbidden things 

And images secreted long, now brought 

Forth mid triumphal music, with applause 185 

And heedless shouts of praise, to snuff once more 

The blood of victims, by misguided zeal 

Oft burnt upon their altars. One rehearsed 

The words pour'd out erewhile before the throne 

By pagan Symmachus, bold advocate 190 

For his time-hallow'd * country, when grave doubt 

Balanced the scale between Jehovah's law 

And Jove's incestuous crew; till them, thus judged, 

Csesar's just edict overthrew, and cast 

From their polluted shrines. Nor shall the voice 195 

Of that blaspheming multitude, which fain 

Would light their holocausts anew, prevail 

Against the Almighty. At the deafening shouts 

Aroused, the venerable pontiff rose 

From meditations deep, whereby to save 200 

His country, and uphold the faith. He pass'd 

Straight to the Vatican, and there erect 

Stood waiting on the sacred steps, which led 

Into the house of God, asylum once 

Safe against barbarous violence and lust, 205 

What time the Gothic conqueror of Rome 

* Symmachi oratio pro sacra patria. 



198 ATTILA. 

Defiled her streets with victory. Then thus 

His arms extending high, " Father !" he cried, 

" Forgive them, for they know not what they do ! 

" But send thine Holy Spirit, to bring home 210 

" These to thy fold, and with confusion strike 

" The unbeliever in his orgies dumb, 

" Thou great and uncreated Mightiness, 

" For Thy name's sake !" They, nothing silenced, nor 

Regardful of the Highest, onward came 215 

Flush' d with impiety : but strong the power 

Of righteousness, on which with tainted breath 

Foul Calumny has never fix'd a stain, 

To stay the senseless and misguided rush 

Of Folly, when the gates of sin and death 220 

Are yawning for their victims. The rash throng 

Stopp'd dubious and amazed, encountering 

Him thus before the vestibule, enrobed 

In hierarchal garb, and with firm grasp 

The crozier, symbol of his holy charge, 225 

Extending. To the mad confusive rout 

Denying ingress and unmoved he stood, 

Like that cherubic glory, which forbad 

The way to Eden, when deluded man 

Fell from the paths of life. An impious cry 230 

Came from the rear; the inebriated crew, 

That shouted praise to Bacchus, struggled on 

Impatiently ; nor lack'd there voices raised 

From throats ferocious, with loud calls to slay 

The pontiff, and disperse his aged limbs 235 

Amongst the multitude, like him * whilere 



Fentheus. 



BOOK IX. 199 

Kill'd by the savage mother,* who on the hills 
Cast his dissever'd members, while her train 
Cried, CEvoe ! and, enwreathed with ivy, danced 
Abominable. Nothing daunted he 240 

Spake, and therewith each mutinous sound was still, 
Like chaos, when the word of mightiness 
Came on the troublous waste. " Me, reckless crowd, 
Me ready, whensoe'er the Almighty wills, 
And due unto the grave, give back to dust ! 245 

A martyr joyful, if the blood so spilt 
Would not, like coals of ever-during fire, 
Lie on your heads eternally ! But who 
Shall shield you from your Maker ? who shall stay 
The ami of the Most High ? that sent His flame 250 
To lick the altar by His prophet reared 
\ indicative, when the bloody priests of Baal 
From morn till eve had gash'd their flesh in vain 
Shouting unto the idol, for their God 
Lack'd sense to hear the wailing of his crew, 
And judgment, from which no salvation is, 255 

O'ertook them. Smite not these Thy guilty flock, 
Almighty Father ! but their erring hearts 
Bend even now to honour Thee ! O sons 
Of holy Rome, deluded to your death, 
Cast down the abominations, that provoke 260 

The Lord to be against us ! Here I stand 
Alone, God's servant, and I say, accurst 
Are the dumb idols, which your hands defiled 
Exalt in impious triumph ; and accurst 
Each tongue, that speaks their praise ! O stubborn race ! 

* Agave. 



200 ATTILA. 

" Harden'd in folly ! have ye quite forgot 

" Things not achieved in secret, how the blocks 

' ' Ye worship, which the cunning workman hew'd 

" To be your Gods, ejected from their fanes 

" Were headlong cast and maim'd, vain images, 270 

" And powerless to help or harm mankind? 

" Save that, polluted by their loathsome rites, 

" Man draws upon himself destruction* Bow 

" The lowly head and bend the suppliant knees, 

•' Frail children of mortality, to who 275 

4 ' Has power to save and to consume ! who sent 

" The pagan, His destroying messenger, 

1 : To desecrate this country for our sins, 

*' And can, whene'er He will, appeased by prayer 

" Or touch'd by sufferings, turn away the plague 280 

" From this His people. Join with me in praise 

" To Him, who, whether He dispenses joy, 

" Or smites us in His wrath, is just and true ! 

" Righteous and merciful are all His ways, 

•' And ever is His sure salvation nigh 285 

" To those, who seek not to the arm of flesh, 

u But trust in Him. I, even I, unarm'd, 

" The weakest of the weak, but strong in faith 

** And clad in my Redeemer's righteousness, 

" Will meet the Hun ; so haply by my tongue 290 

* ' The word of truth on his benighted mind 

' ' May breathe a gentle calm, and mitigate 

*' His rage against the just. Frail sons of Rome, 

" Kneel low with me ! and Thou, accept the prayers 

" Of these Thy sinful penitents! We laud 295 

1 ' Thy name, Jehovah ! Thou alone art God ! 

" We are not worthy to approach Thy throne 



BOOK IX. 201 

M With voice of adoration, or with hymns 

" Breathed from polluted lips ! But Thou art still 

" The same, eternal and unchangeable, 300 

14 Who, robed in mercy, never wilt reject 

" Those that in meek repentance turn to Thee !" 

He ceased, and therewithal the portals wide 
Open'd behind him, and with vocal strain 
(Chorus and semichorus, in response 305 

Melodiously alternating) advanced 
Of white-robed quiristers a holy train 
Slow from the house of God, and pour'd forth praise 
Hymn'd whilom by diviner lips. " We laud 
" Thy name, Jehovah! Thou alone art God! 310 

" The earth is Thine, and all that therein is; 
" The compass of the world, and they that dwell 
" Therein ; for Thou hast founded it upon 
" The seas, and on the floods prepared it. 
" Who shall ascend into Thy holy place ? 315 

" E'en he that hath clean hands ; he shall receive 
" Thy blessing. — O ye gates ! lift up your heads ! 
" Be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors 
44 The King of glory shall come in. — Who is 
" The King of glory? — It is the Lord of hosts, 320 

" Mighty and strong, the Lord in battle strong ; 
" And these are they that seek Him ! These the sons 
" That glorify His name. Be ye lift up 
44 Ye everlasting doors ! and lift your heads. 
" Ye gates ! The King of glory shall come in !" 325 

Thus they with visages ecstatic, fixt 
Upon the firmament, whence, mildly pour'd. 
The day-spring stream'd on them from heaven, as if 
Beaming acceptance ; and the fickle crowd, 



202 ATTILA. 

That came to curse, with alter'd heart and voice 330 

Shouted Jehovah ! Him in battle strong, 

The King of glory, and the Lord of hosts ! 

While they, who to forbidden orgies clung, 

Withdrew abash'd or murmuring ; for the word 

Was mighty, and in loud symphonious chaunt 335 

Messiah's name was wafted to the skies. 

The din of turbulence in Rome was lull'd, 
And tranquil glanced upon her marble fanes 
The parting beam, as, in the Tuscan wave 
Far westward, sank the sun's unclouded orb 340 

Radiant with gold. A down that famous hill, 
From whence, in after ages, upon kings 
Hath fulmined oft the hierarchal ban, 
His step as placid, as his brow benign, 
Good Leo wins his way. A gentler care 345 

Now leads him, where secluded sorrow dwells 
Wrapp'd in the veil of holiness. Close barr'd 
Against profaner feet, a massive gate 
Ready access unto the pontiff yields ; 
And thro' the quiet corridor he treads 350 

Unto a lonely chamber, which hath heard 
Erewhile his heartfelt benediction pour'd 
Upon repentant sin. There, on a couch 
Of no luxurious tissue, weak and wan 
The sister of imperial Caesar lay. 355 

Her languid eyes were dim ; ambition now 
Lit not their changeful glance, or lawless thoughts 
By dangerous passion stirr'd. Submission meek 
Over her mournful countenance diffused 
Calm loveliness, that savour'd less of earth 360 

And this world's frail desiring. Slow disease 



BOOK IX. 203 

Had paled her ruby lip, and ever seem'd 

Death's angel nigh her couch, ready to cut 

Life's slender thread. " Peace to these sacred walls !" 

Entering he spoke, " to those, who find therein 365 

" A refuge from temptations of the world, 

" A haven from tumultuous passions, peace !" 

To him with eyes downcast Honoria said; 

" Much needs thy blessing, father, and that peace, 

" Which the world cannot give or take away, 370 

" To soothe the wounded spirit, that has sinn'd 

" Against its Maker, and of guilt convinced 

" Lies prostrate. How shall it in prayer draw nigh 

" Whom nothing, that defileth, may approach ? 

" Thou art alone amongst the sons of Rome 375 

" By evil unpolluted, and the works, 

" Thy zeal hath wrought, have placed upon thy brow 

" The crown that never fades. O pure of heart, 

" And thus accepted at the throne of grace, 

" Be thou my intercessor !" " Child of grief, 380 

" Thou errest, knowing not the word of truth," 

Replied the pontiff " Easy access there is 

" For all who will, unto that gracious seat. 

" Thy fellow mortal, under sin alike 

" Concluded, I am nothing worth, to stand 385 

" Between the guilty, and the outstretch'd arm 

" Of his offended Maker. One is pure, 

" One only is accepted, and may be 

" The Mediator betwixt God and Man, 

" E'en He, who dying has borne all our sins, 390 

" A mighty sacrifice. Thro' faith in Him 

" Made perfect by obedience, such as man 

" Can offer, frail of purpose, to his God, 



204 ATTILA. 

" I am assured of help, whereby to work 

" In trembling my salvation ; but good works, 395 

" Aye, daughter, e'en the brightest that have shone 

" Amidst the deeds of men, can profit nought 

" Unto salvation, for they lack the power 

" To open the strait gate of life, and, soil'd 

" By worldly ends, that lurk in the heart's core 400 

" Unseen and unsuspected, their best form 

" Still savours of offence. Good works shall be 

" A glory to the righteous, and Truth says 

" That they * shall follow him, and haply deck 

" A brighter mansion f in the Father's house 405 

" For the accepted; but that door is closed 

" Against the proud, who seek to enter in 

" Clothed in their righteousness. One only key 

" Can win access to everlasting joy, 

" The blood of Him that died, and faith must hold 4J0 

" That passport without wavering. To Him, 

" Approaching humbly unto mercy's throne, 

" I trust my weakness ; ever prompt with zeal 

" To lead the sheep of mine Almighty Lord 

" Unto those pastures, and that living spring, 415 

" Which I have tasted. Lady, those green walks 

" Amid the desolation of this world 

" Are ever fresh, and breathe unfailing health 

" Unto the soul. Pleasant they are and safe 

" To who, athirst and weary with the toil 420 

" Of life's contentious journey, seek repose 

" In the bless'd vale of righteousness, where comes 

" No scorching noontide with the feverish hum 

* Revelation xiv. 13. t John xiv. 2. 



BOOK IX. -205 

" Of passions multiform ; calm peace is there 

" O'ershadow'd by the might of the Benign, 425 

" And nurtured by His word . But to that vale 

" One entrance, and thro' One alone, is given." 

" Father," resumed the damsel, " my young heart 

" Stray'd heedless, in the joyful prime of life 

" Amidst a wilderness, where mingling sweets 430 

" Rioted in vain luxuriance at their will, 

" Quite unrestraint by the chastising hand 

" Of nice propriety. Pure innocence, 

" The jewel, which surpasseth price, I lost, 

" Ere I had learnt its value, and reproof 435 

" Fell harsh and hateful on mine ear, attuned 

" To self-indulgence. The obdurate wrath 

" Of mine imperious parent seem'd to breathe 

" Not chastity, but pride ; and bitter taunts 

" From Valentinian, (sunk himself how deep 440 

" In loathliest sensuality!) awoke 

" No sense of shame within me, born of her 

" Who round our youth had spread a vicious lure, 

" So to debase her son, and wield herself 

" The sceptre of his right. Exiled, outcast 445 

" From blithe Ravenna, sever'd from the love 

" Then dear unto my heart, though now with shame 

" Too late remember d and repentance vain, 

" Amid Byzantine pomp my hopeless years 

" Rigid Pulcheria in seclusion held, 450 

" And prayer, in her austere devotions pour'd, 

" Came bitter to my soul. It brought no balm 

" To soothe my griefs ; it breathed no healthful charm, 

" Like thy consoling voice : but penance drear, 

" Cold taunts, and execrated vigils, drove 455 



*206 ATTILA. 

" My heart to desperation, while forlorn 

" I thought how my aspiring mother pass'd 

" From a barbarian * to a Roman bed. 

" The purple was the guerdon of her charms 

" Thus sold for power ; and, reckless of my God, 460 

" (Unknown, or by no eye of saving faith 

" Seen dimly) to the dreaded Hun I turn'd, 

" As to the renovating source of life, 

" Voluptuous joys, and pomp, and surquedry, 

" On which my youth had batten'd. Other thoughts 465 

" Waked by thy kindlier voice, have made this heart 

" Convicted of defilement, and I loathe 

" The memory of that which I have been, 

" Shame says, which I am still, if guilt 

" Be not absolved by sorrow. Is it good, 470 

" My father, to be thus afflicted ?" " Aye, 

" Daughter, thro' sorrow and affliction comes 

" Salvation ;" answer'd the mild priest of Rome. 

" But sorrow purges not the soul of sin 

" Without that saving grace, which is from high 475 

" Through faith alone. Blessed, thrice blessed, those 



* Placidia, daughter of Theodosius the Great, having fallen into the 
hands of the Goths, was married with great pomp to Adolphus king of 
the Visigoths. After his murder at Barcelona by the brother of Sarus, 
she was given up by his successor Wallia to the Roman general Con» 
stantius. Constantius received her in marriage as a reward for his 
services, and was raised to the imperial throne. Valentinian the Third 
and Honoria were their offspring. Placidia was aunt to Theodosius the 
younger and Pulcheria, who were the children of her brother Arcadius. 
Arcadia and Marina, were associated with their sister Pulcheria in the 
public vow by which their virginity was dedicated to God; but the 
chastity of Pulcheria, as well as her mother Eudoxia, lies under the 
heaviest imputations, nor did that of Placidia escape the most dis- 
gusting suspicions. 



BOOK IX. 207 

" Who are convinced of guilt ! in whpm the pride, 

" Which this frail world has gender'd, stands rebuked, 

" And lowliness of heart throws wide the door 

" Unto repentance ; by which holy aid 480 

" Comes faith with healing, and calm peace, and joy, 

" Which shall be there for ever." " Give that faith 

" Unto my yearning spirit, good pontiff!" cried 

Honoria ; " O give that, from which can flow 

" Salvation, peace, and joy ! I have believed 485 

" E'en from my cradle in that holy name, 

" Which is redemption to mankind ; but peace 

" Has shunn'd my ways, and joy, if mine, has been 

" Impure and transient. Is my faith not faith, 

" Or can the evil soil, on which it falls, 490 

" Bear nothing good?" " Faith without works is dead," 

Replied the father; " if it bring not fruit, 

" Meekness, obedience, temperance, and love 

" First to our God, unbounded, infinite, 

" Pure as himself; next to our fellow men, 495 

" Chaste, temper'd with discretion, it is not 

" A saving faith, but barren; such belief, 

" As demons yield to the Almighty power, 

" Whom trembling they revere; and wo to those, 

" Whoever shall, in after times or now, 500 

" Teach man to lean upon that reed, and trust 

" To such a hollow and deceptive hope !" 

" Ah me !" exclaim'd the penitent, and tears 

Fast coursed each other down her pallid cheek ; 

" Then farewell, hope ! farewell, illusions vain ! 505 

" Which, waked by thy kind voice, had stirr'd my soul 

" To apprehension of a happier state, 

i{ Where that, which had been in dishonour sown, 



208 ATTILA. 

" Might yet be sanctified, and reap'd in joy 

" Hereafter. Frail, unblest, sterile of good, 510 

" My hours are waning to their close. Stern Death 

" Stands at my couch; and O how short the space 

" To perfect that, for which the longest life 

' ' Hardly sufficeth !" " Be of good cheer, my child !" 

Took up the holy man, and therewithal 5 1 5 

Raised his right arm to heaven. " Be of good cheer, 

" And lift the suppliant hands to the Most High, 

" For Christ is all-sufficient ! Unto God, 

" Who is the First and Last, a thousand years 

" Are as a day, and one brief moment worth 520 

" The longest life of man ; a petty speck 

1 ' Upon the roll of unrecorded time 

" To who inhabiteth eternity ! 

" Perdition yawns for the presumptuous soul, 

" Which, rioting in evil, shuns the heat 525 

' ' And burthen of the day, thinking to toil 

" At that late hour, in which no man can work; 

" But one bright beam of light, vouchsafed from high 

" Thro' God's own Spirit, to that bruised heart 

" Which is athirst for righteousness, can throw 530 

" A glory round the grave; and the sure hope, 

" That dawns in mercy on the parting soul, 

" Is even as the guerdon of the just, 

" Who needeth no repentance. O light up 

" The mournful eye, and raise the voice with prayer, 535 

' ' Confiding in that name, thro' which alone 

" Access for any unto bliss is given !" 

He ceased ; as when the dull autumnal haze 

Admits a transient gleam, ecstatic joy 

Shone thro' her tears. " Be glory," she exclaim'd, 540 



BOOK IX. 209 

" Messiah to thy name ! be mine in tears, 

" In sackcloth, and in ashes, to deplore 

■ ' My own un worthiness ; and, if thro' Thee 

" This mortal frame may from dishonour rise 

" Unto celestial bliss, be Thine the praise !" 545 

She said, and kneeling kiss'd the holy rood, 

That sanctified her cell. The man of God 

Upon her pious head stretch'd out his hands 

Half tremulous, and pour'd his blessing forth 

In gentle accents, fraught with holy love, 550 

That fell upon her spirit, like the dew 

Of evening on the parch'd and weeping herb. 

Then forth he went to weightier cares, prepared 

For that high charge, which with amazement strange 

Shall strike the unbeliever, and turn back 555 

The scourge of the Almighty wrath from Rome, 



ATTILA 



BOOK TENTH. 

North of the seven-mouth'd flood, that drinks thy stream, 

Slow Mincius, where the foot that journies on 

At Acroventus treads thy shallow wave, 

Were gather'd to one head the ruthless bands 

Which had o'erwhelm'd Ausonia, and the clang 5 

Of multifarious arms and heathen war 

Rang even to the welkin. There encamp'd 

Lay Attila's great host, with hungry wish 

Foretasting Latium's plunder, at his word 

Prepared to o'erpass Eridanus, and smite 10 

Sore humbled Rome. That memorable hour 

Was pregnant with the fortunes of mankind. 

From heaven's cerulean cope God's angel look'd 

Upon the gathering of nations, leagued 

With evil Powers, that revell'd in the pride 15 

Of dangerous knowledge, soon to reap dismay. 

He saw, where swarm'd on the crystalline heights 

Of Jura* and the Alp's huge solitudes, 

All that of spirituous nature fell 

With the Archfiend, precipitate from high; 20 

Sylphids, and gnomes, and shadowy forms that flit 

Across the moonlight, and the haughtier shapes 



BOOK X. 211 

Of evil angels, thrones, dominions, powers, 

With all the phantom train of viewless things 

That do his hateful bidding. Now, elate 25 

With triumph of anticipated sway, 

They cluster on the peaks, where human tread 

Comes not, or voice of man. A fearful sound 

Of exultation from the misty height 

Bursts, like the thunder of the rifted ice, 30 

Which rolls from glen to glen, and echoed far 

Strikes the aerial pinnacles. Nor sounds 

Alone of dreadful portent, and the voice 

Of the destroyer, cheer'd the pagan host ; 

But many a meteor, flaming in mid air, 35 

Career'd above them ; with portentous light 

A comet,* like that once o'er Salem seen, 

Up to the pole from the horizon blazed, 

And all the north, with nightly radiance lit, 

Glow'd fiery, as if Phlegethon, let loose 40 

From the abyss, with its sulphureous surge 

Lash'd heaven, and Orcus were outpour'd on earth. 

The angel look'd to Rome, and those gilt halls, 

Where slumber'd heartless Valentinian, lord 

Of Rome's declining destinies, begirt 45 

With feeble eunuchs and the timid pomp 

Of minions, in whose veins no honest blood 

Throbb'd for their country. The luxurious court 

Batten'd on sensuality, secure 

* In the second year of the Emperor Marcian, when Attila invaded 
Gaul, signs appeared in the heavens from tlie North, the sky at evening- 
became fiery red with an intermixture of bright lights, the moon was 
eclipsed, and a comet appeared. Laziard. Epit. Hist. Univ. fol. CV. 

p 2 



21*2 ATTILA. 

Of that Almighty scourge, which over head 50 

Hung even then suspended ; and what arm, 

Save His who gave it license to destroy, 

Correcting whom He loves, and for wise ends 

Thinning His guilty flock, shall stay its force ! 

Not Meroveus, not Tolosa's king, 55 

Not double-tongued Aetius, now shall turn 

War's torrent, or delay the whelming flood. 

O for a blast, like that which whilom scared 

Assyria's boastful captain, from the skirts 

Of shadowy Carmel to his native land ! 60 

O for the trumpet, which shall rouse the dead, 

To break thy slumbers, Rome, and bid thee gird 

The armour of thy God, the breastplate pure 

Of righteousness, and wield the shield of faith, 

Wherewith thou may'st repel the fiery darts 65 

Of thine invader ! from thy famous walls, 

Which lorded o'er the earth, the warders now 

Look northward blanch'd with terror ; and the arm 

Of fleshly power, wherein thou didst excel, 

Fails thee at need. No host in iron clad, 70 

No hearts like those, which for thine altars bled 

At Cannae or red Thrasymene, now stand 

Before thy ramparts Thou must sue to him, 

Whose barbarous battle is about thee, sprung 

From bleak Imaus, thy predestined scourge. 75 

The Angel gazed with ruth, and from on high 

Pour'd radiance, such as falls at dewy eve 

From the departing day, into the breast 

Of Leo, shepherd of the trembling flock, 

Confirming his calm heart with trust in God, 80 

And faith that can move mountains. With slow pace 



BOOK X. . 213 

Descending from the * Vatican, first paid 

Thanksgiving due and praise to the Most High, 

Upon the gilded car Rome's legates go 

With other mien, than on triumphal wheels 85 

Who clombe while-ere the hill Capitoline, 

Dragging the pomp of chained kings, and spoils 

From far Aurora or the burning South 

Torn by unconquer'd arms. The sumptuous train 

That follow, bring barbaric silks and gold, 90 

The meed of conquest once, but now the price 

To win precarious respite, and appease 

An unresisted foe. The branch of peace 

Precedes them, and the voice of holy song. 

Strong, beside frighted Mincius, in his camp 95 

Sat Attila enthroned. Around him stood 
A hundred kings. Their hands were on the hilt, 
Their spirit blythe with expectation. He, 
Wisely forecasting, unto each address'd 
His several mandates, and at dawning bade 100 

The universal host in proud array 
Muster its battle. Haughty was their vaunt 
To overthrow the seven-throned queen ; affiance firm 
In their terrific lord assured each heart ; 
For who hath stood before him, of the kings 105 

Between Jaxartes and Germanic Rhine ? 
Not Hermanric, whose Gothic empire stretch'd 
From Pontus to the Baltic ; not the khan 
Of Avars, or those pastoral tribes that dwelt 



* The first church on the Vatican was built and dedicated to St. 
Peter by Constantine, and said to be on the site of the tomb of St. 
Peter, buried there by St. Anacletus. Constantine also built tin 1 basi- 
licon See Bonanni Numism. tempi. Vat. 171o. p. 0. 



214 ATTILA. 

By Volga and the banks which Tanais laves, 110 

In snowy tents around their Alan king, 

Gelon or painted Agathyrsian chiefs; 

Not Waldemar the Russ, whose confines reach'd 

The Hyperboreans and bleak realms of frost ; 

Not Gundioc, lord of Nibelungian gold; 115 

Not proud Osantrix, with his vassal kings, 

Danish Aspilian, and who else, of mould 

Gigantic, at his summons march'd to death, 

Smit by the mighty Hun. They # have each bow'd 

Unto his bidding, and the iron sword 120 

Of Scythia has cast down their hearths and Gods 

Imbecile for salvation ; but Thine arm, 

Jehovah ! the blasphemer's empty boast 

Shall bring to nought, and with resistless power 

Turn back the foaming bridles of the Hun, 125 

The way whereby he came ; that all may know 

Thee for their God, and Thy faith stand secure, 

The rock of ages, on which beat in vain 

Man's malice, or the fiercer hate of fiends. 

A sound of solemn notes far floating came 130 

On that unhallow'd council, as it stood 
Debating war ; and mild the south-wind brought 
The melody sublime of holy song, 
Symphonious voices, and pacific praise. 
Then wound in view the many-colour'd pomp 135 

Of Rome's legation, by the limpid stream 
Of Mincius, glittering to the noonday sun 
With scarlet and with gold. Bright tissues, wrought 
With precious skill, ebon, and ivory, 

* See the Scandinavian Sagas. 



BOOK X. 215 

And moulded shapes of massive gold, display 'd 140 

An abject empire's tribute, with full chests 

Of money'd ore, stamp'd with the laurel'd brow 

Of Rome's degenerate emperors. Arrived, 

Denial harsh and stern rejection waits 

Her embassy. Hard task, and long, to win 145 

Admission to the wilful monarch's court, 

And license e'en to sue. With haughty eye 

He scann'd the tribute, and a milder gleam 

Pass'd o'er his rugged brow. With alter'd mien 

He sign'd Orestes, ever on his beck 150 

Watchful attendant, and with voice abrupt 

Bade the scorn'd Romans enter. Foremost came 

Sage Avienus, whose red trabea told 

Of honours consular, in time foregone 

Worn nobly, and whose head was blanch'd by age. 155 

Next brave Trigetius with unyielding brow, 

Pretorian prefect ; and, in order last, 

Not least in worth and honour, Leo stept 

With mournful aspect, but serene, and firm, 

Strong in the hope that fails not. Them the king 160 

Imperious thus bespoke. " Romans, ye bring 

" Vain tribute, rendering to me mine own, 

" A niggard portion to whom all belongs, 

" All that Italia, from the sunny point 

" Of Sirmio to far Tarentum, all 165 

" That Rome holds now, or held in pride of sway 

" When she was first amongst the nations. Yet 

" A few short days, and on her hills this sword 

" Shall stand erect and bare. Our solemn rites 

" There shall we do, and the dread cauldron's brim 170 

" Shall froth with Christian blood, an eucharist 



216 ATTILA. 

" To the Terrific." Stern he spoke ; to him 

Bland Avienus meekly made reply : 

" Great son of Mundiuc, thy renown is spread 

" From rosy-curtain'd Orient, to the waves 175 

" Where Hesperus on dewy couch receives 

i€ The sun's last radiance. Thou hast made the arms 

" Of these, thy warlike countrymen, a dread 

" To nations, and bright victory, where'er 

" Thou turn'st, precedes thee. If the cherish'd name 180 

" Of fatherland is sweeter to thine ears* 

' ' Than music, or the fall of waters heard 

" In the calm hour of moonlight; if the voice, 

" Which glory speaks unto thine inmost thoughts, 

" Be like a deathless aspiration, sent 185 

" From other spheres, O king, revere the prayers 

" Breathed for our native land, the thoughts that burn 

" Within a Roman's bosom ! Rome hath stood, 

" The mighty, and the fortunate, long years 

il Triumphal; and the day has been, when none 190 

" Dared stand against her, of the brave, whom Mars 

" Sent forth to war. There are undaunted powers 

tc Around her still, and o'er her giant walls 

" The immortal Genius spreads his guardian wings. 

" Say, thou succeedest, and thine iron force 195 

" Throw down her fanes, and o'er her glories fling 

' ' The bleeding shame of conquest ! what renown, 

' ' What profit to have made the fairest realm, 

" That ever on this goodly earth held sway, 

" A desolation and a name gone by? 200 

" Far other be thy boast, great king of men, 

" To found, as thou hast done, an empire stretch'd 

<l From Sericana unto Gaul along 



BOOK X. 217 

Majestic Danau, to bestride the north 

With unresisted arms, revered as God, 205 

Where'er the song of Druid or of Scald 

Amid gigantic stones and darksome groves 

Pours forth mysterious praise. Bring hardy tribes 

Beneath thy banner, men inured to toil, 

Who have no page of story, but shall hail 210 

Their bondage, and from thy dominion date 

The dawn of fame. Be distant Thule thine, 

Codanian shores, and that Hesperian isle 

Ierne, greener than the western wave, 

And Britain, stretching far her sea-beat cliffs 215 

Secluded from the world. Untrodden fields 

Of glory call thee, where rich Acheron rolls 

A golden flood, and Arimaspus trains 

His one-eyed host to Hyperborean war. 

Greece and Italia seek thy friendship, not 220 

Corrivals, but in firm alliance knit 

With thee, unequall'd monarch of the north, 

Giving and taking aid ; if aid to those 

Be needful, who with triple strength array'd 

From all invasion are secure and free, 225 

Thus leagued in peace. But fickle is the wheel, 

On which imperial Fortune wins her way ; 

And, great howe'er thy might, reverses strange 

Are oft the portion of mortality. 

Say, thou succeedest, from Rome's ashes still 230 

May an avenger spring, an arm like that 

Which slew immortal Caesar ; but, unharm'd 

If she resist thy blows, the one prize miss'd, 

More shall obscure thy fame, than thousand thrones 

Of captive kings have brighten'd it. Tread not 235 



218 ATT1LA. 

" Beneath the brazen-footed might of war 

" The extended olive, nor, victorious chief, 

" Reject thy suppliants ! So may fortune still 

" Smile on thee, and thy bow * abide in strength." 

The Roman paused ; for the irascent Hun 240 

Knit his fierce brows, and o'er his visage came 

The dog-like sneer, which furrow'd it, whene'er 

Mercy forsook his breast. " Cease, babbler, cease !" 

He cried, and rising with his iron heel 

He smote the ground. " Fly with wing'd speed to Rome, 

" Lest haply I outstrip thy laggard march, 

" And thou, first offering, bedew the sword 

" With thy life's blood. Bid the vain Caesar joy 

" Three nights of ease, three days of feasting, ere 

" His gore asperse the pyre, and his lopt arm 250 

" Be east unto the winds." To him unscared 

Trigetius made reply. " We stand, great king, 

" Before thy presence with the badge of peace, 

" Hallow'd by use of unremember'd years 

" Among the sons of war, and all thy threats 255 

" Go by innocuous. If Heaven wills our fall, 

" It were not for the fame of Rome, to shun 

" The appointed issue. She has hearts, that pant 

" To perish for her weal ; hands resolute, 

" As his that whilom, in the sacred flame 260 

" Extended, shew'd how Romans can endure ; 

" Youth has she, ardent as young Scipio's ; age, 

" As prompt to meet its doom, as they who sat 

" With hoary locks and senatorial robe 

" Awaiting death in silence, when the Gaul 265 

* Genesis xlix. 24. 



BOOK X. 219 

" Brief glory gain'd, which soon he rued in blood ; 

" And she has altars, dearer than the shrines 

" For which our fathers bled, a mightier name 

" Than that which clothed in sacrificial pomp 

" Her pontiffs dared not whisper, even thy name, 270 

" Messiah ! for whose faith they blessed are 

" That, dying, gain a crown which evermore 

" Shall shine upon their foreheads. Nothing loth 

" We to our hearths return, and whet the sword 

" For the arbitrement of life or death; 275 

" And, if Jehovah wills, that glorious Rome 

" Be mingled with the dust, and his own house 

" Become abominable, we shall fall, 

" As He ordains, rejoicing; and our blood, 

" Sold to the pagan at no humble cost, 280 

" Shall sanctify her ruin !" At those high words 

Flush'd with indignant heat, the vengeful king 

Strode forwards, and e'en then unbridled rage 

Had cut all parley short, and bade the trump 

Out-breathe defiance, never blown in vain, 285 

The warning sure of blood ; but stately stept 

Before him Leo ; his resplendent brow 

Beam'd with no earthly majesty, as, clad 

In his pontifical robe, with palm out -spread, 

He stood opposed to the destroyer's wrath ; 290 

And thus, " Stay, impious !" he exclaim 'd, " the blood 

" Spilt by thy fury reeks e'en now to heaven, 

" And judgment is upon thee. Against whom 

" Hast thou thyself exalted ? whom reproach'd, 

" Blaspheming the Most High. Therefore His arm 295 

" Who smote with loathsome death the impious king* 



Antiochus Epiphanes. 



220 



ATTILA. 



" In vain self-magnified; His arm who sent 

" Upon Sennacherib * the fatal curse 

" Angelic, pour'd at midnight on his host, 

" And scared him from his lofty vaunt, to fall 300 

" By parricidal treason in the house 

" Of his foul God ; His arm who to the dust 

" Bow'd the triumphant Goth,f and in few months 

" Wiped out the boast of victory, and laid 

" Him in that lowly house, where great and small 305 

" Lie mingled; thee to thine opprobrious home 

" Shall turn from hence confounded, and bring low 

" The throne, which thou hast stablished -by sin." 

The pontiff ceased ; awe-struck the monarch paused, 

And held his speech; for round the man of God, 310 

Who spoke, unconscious of the majesty 

Wherewith heaven clothed his brow, celestial light 

Stream'd downward, and upon his right and left 

Two forms, to Attila alone reveal'd, 

With venerable port and hoary brows, 315 

Larger than living, and more glorious, stood. 

There was no voice, but close before the king 

Martyr'd f Barjona seem'd with splendour robed, 

And he § of Tarsus, his vindictive arm 

Extending; as when whilom he rebuked 320 

The sorcerer in Paphos, and dried up 

His fount of light, he turn'd his stern aspect 

To that unhallow'd army, which stood nigh 

Confiding, and with proud impatience chafed. 

The king shrank back appall'd. A sound ensued 325 

As of an earthquake, when the mutinous winds, 

* Isai. xxxvii. t Alaric. t St. Peter. ^ St. Paul. 



BOOK X. 221 

Imprisoned under-ground, thro' some vast rent 

Strive viewless, shaking its distemper'd frame ; 

The sullen murmur of ten thousand fiends 

Roused from their lair. As on Sarmatia's plain, 330 

Or where %Viadrus thro' the level glebe 

Rolls fruitfulness, if some belated swain 

At dead of night invades the winged herd 

Of Hyperborean fowls,* that crop unseen 

The verdant blade, upon his startled ear 335 

Stupendous rises the eonfusive rush 

Of thousand mingling pinions, which at once, 

As gender'd from the womb of darkness, smite 

The pathless ways of air ; so rose the sound 

Of countless fiends departing, that aloof 340 

Follow'd the Archfiend, as some nocturnal haze 

Drawn hill-ward by the Sun ; the rustling flight 

Of Powers and dark Dominions, that forsook 

Him smitten in his pride by holy fear, 

And fallen ; for his hour of short-lived might 345 

Was past e'en then, and the Lord's right-hand bared 

O'er the condemn'd. The fiery-footed plague 

From His consuming angel had gone forth, 

And the Huns fell by thousands. Languid droops 

The arm of vigour ; the scorch'd brows are tense 350 

With fever, and the eyes start, red like coals 

Of glowing fire. Fierce thirst assails the frame, 

Delirious fears, and vague solicitude ; 

And the ears ring, and nostrils spout with blood, 

While ulcers creep o'er the discolour'd flesh, 355 

* A person who has never disturbed a large flock of wild geese in the 
dark, can scarcely conceive the sound of their rising suddenly close to 
him. 



*222 ATTILA. 

And, sent from heaven, corruption goes before 

The work of death. Or by Benacus clear, 

Or by the limpid wave of Mincius, stretch 'd, 

They lie, commingled on the flowery turf, 

Now stain'd and foul, whence fresh yestrene the air 360 

Balsamic sweetness brought. The trumpet's bray, 

The clarion, the deep cymbal's stirring clang, 

Shall sound in vain for them. Ne'er shall they quaff 

The Latian vintage, nor with gleamy arms 

Assail the Roman battlements, nor chase 365 

Nigh Tiber's yellow sands the flying nymphs, 

War's beauteous prize. In lingering pangs they lie 

Smit by the Almighty. No bold minister, 

Like Phinehas, by zeal * arrests the plague ; 

No saint with odoriferous censer stands 370 

Between the dead and dying,f to the Lord 

Making atonement. Their stern monarch views 

The loathsome desolation thin his host, 

As crackling flames by arid Eurus fann'd 

Thro' the parch'd forest run, involving wide 375 

The shadowy haunts of Faun, and pastures sere, 

Till the scared peasant mourns his golden crop , 

Wrapt in devouring fire. With bitter taunt 

He bids Rome's embassy depart unscathed, 

Conceding peace ; and, fain to turn his march 380 

Once more unto Pannonia, redemands 

Honoria's person, haughtily withheld, 

And her rich share of empire. Else, he swore, 

By the twin steeds of homicidal Mars, 

At spring's first call to wreak on helpless Rome 385 

* Numbersxxv.il. t Numbers xvi. 48. 






book x. 223 

Vengeance delay'd, and from her ashes tear 

His bride denied in vain. So ran his vaunt, 

Lip- valorous, and empty breath of air ; 

But deep into his bosom sunk the curse 

Of the old man apostolic ; he recall'd 390 

To his aboding thoughts fall'n Radagais, 

And greater him, who pour'd his Getic force 

On trampled Rome, but, ere a few short moons, 

Shorn of his honours lay beneath the bed 

Of Busentinus, with funereal pomp 395 

Placed in the narrow tenement of death. 

Nor came not o'er his mind presages dark 

Touching his compact, and the menaced hate 

Of Him terrific, in whose glory clothed 

He had defied the Holiest, and now 400 

Naked must stand before Jehovah's wrath, 

Abandon'd by the Powers, which ever fail 

Deluded man, and revel in his loss. 

With different mien, and voice of grateful praise, 
Assembled crowds on the Quirinal saw 405 

Leo returning. Swifter than his course, 
Fame many-tongued had travell'd ; the glad throng 
Bestrew his way with flowers ; mid pious song 
And hallelujahs to the house of God 
They lead him, while the city rings with joy. 410 

Due prayer and formal thanksgiving first paid, 
His heart's abundance thus to the Most High 
Good Leo pour'd. " Not unto us, O Lord, 
" Not unto us, but to Thine arm alone, 
" Ascribe we might and power. Except Thou keep'st 415 
" The city, shadow'd by Thy glorious wing, 
" The watcher wakes in vain. From Thee alone 



224 ATTILA. 

" Proceeds deliverance ; Thou hast turn'd aside 

" The blood-red Mars of Scythia ! All his threats 

" To lash the faithful, and to desecrate 420 

" Thy shrine with guiltless blood, are like the dust 

" Scatter'd before the whirlwind. Thou didst look 

" In glory from the windows of thy wrath, 

" And he was dumb. Thy plague, a fiery scourge, 

" Is sharper than the sword ; sent forth by Thee 425 

" On the destroyer, in his ruthless pride, 

" Like flax, it hath consumed him, and like straw 

" Before the flames. But Thou art still unchanged 

" For ever and unchangeable, the Lord 

" Who from the empyreal chambers of the heaven 430 

" Rain'd flaming brimstone on Gomorrah ; who 

" With the loud trumpet's blast and sounding horn 

" O'erthrew the towers of Jericho ; who wrote 

" The blazing legend of her fate, denounced 

" That night on Babylon, and gave away 435 

" Her kingdom ere the day-break ; but Thine arm 

" Is strong to save, as mighty to destroy. 

" Thy faithfulness a sword and buckler is 

" To those who fear thy word ; and Thou shalt guard 

" This city, to save it ; for he shall not cast 440 

" A bank * against it, nor an arrow shoot, 

" Nor come before it with the shield and spear, 

" For Thou art our defence ; and, as Thy wrath 

" On evil f Arius, who Thine erring flock 

" Led devious, sent the first betrayer's fate, 445 

" So, Lord, upon the man of Sin, who rears 



* Isaiah xxxvii. 33. 
t The Catholics asserted that Arius died by the gushing out of Ids 
entrails in consequence of a fall. 



book x. 225 

" The thing accurst, and names himself Thy scourge 

" Blaspheming, be Thine indignation pour'd ! 

" O let him fall unhonour'd ! Be there none 

" To say, ' Ah * Lord ! or, Ah his glory !' None, 450 

" Of all his power hath rear'd, or guilty love 

" Embraced with arms incestuous, to assuage 

" By piteous tears the hour of his dismay ! 

" And pass his throne ! like the unwholesome mist 

" Dispell'd by morning's ray ; no son of his 455 

" Inheriting, what prowess misapplied, 

" And wisdom, judged in its offensive fruits, 

" Have girded on his brow ; a baneful crown 

" Which shall consume the forehead it adorns. ,, 

Not without God so sang the holy man. 460 

* Jeremiah xxii. 18- 



ATTILA. 



BOOK ELEVENTH. 

Unsated from the vales, where half his host 

Lay struck by the Destroyer, to his home 

Turn'd the fierce Hun. In glorious pomp display'd 

Before him plunder, heap'd on plunder, goes ; 

The gifts of humbled Caesar, and the spoils 5 

Torn from a hundred towns ; some from thy domes 

Beside the azure Hadriatic wave, 

Royal Ravenna ; some from Brixian fanes, 

Or Mediolanum's palaces and * mint 

That rivall'd Rome ; some from Concordia's wreck, 10 

Ateste, or Verona, f which had seen 

Strange gladiators, and no mimic war 

On their blood-gorged arena, to the clang 

Of pagan triumph and discordant shouts, 

Glittering with hostile arms; from all the plain 15 

Unto Cremona, and the marsh-bound walls 

* Palatinse arces opulensque moneta. — Ausonius. 
t See the engraving of the magnificent amphitheatre of Verona in 
Onufrius Panvinius Antiq. Veron. It was built by the orders of Aug. 
Caj6ar without the town, and overthrown by earthquakes in 1117 and 
1183. 






book xi. 2*27 

Which winding Mincius laves. Receding slow 

The reavers of Ausonia win their way. 

The Rhsetian Alps are climb'd; with proud survey 

The Hun looks Northward, where before him lies 20 

Clear Licus, watering with his hill-born flood 

Wild Vindelicia. Hot, impetuous, 

Pale Grana moved beneath his stately freight, 

As if he touch'd not earth. The rugged rocks 

Beetling around, and many a time-scathed pine 25 

Frown'd o'er the mountain pass. Sudden he stopp'd 

Awe-smitten and aghast, like that famed horse 

Arion,* by the Goddess fury-form 'd 

To Neptune borne, and stall'd by f Nereids, 

When full before him, on the listed course, 30 

Radiant f Apollo held the Gorgon head 

Upraised from Erebus. Erect he rear'd, 

And from his flowing mane threw flakes of fire, 

As terror lit his eyes ; for in his path 

A woman § of terrific stature, arm'd 35 

At every point, bestrode a coal-black steed, 

And high above her head a glittering lance 

Held transverse ; like those bright unearthly forms, 

Which, seen by Arctic warriors at their close 

Of life and glory, from the bloody field 40 

Select the doom'd. A look of sad presage 



* See Pausanias and Hesychius. Ceres, disguised as a fury, con- 
ceived the horse Arion to Neptune. — Pausanias. 

t Nereidum stabulis nutritus Arion. — Claud. Cons. 4. Honor, v. 556. 

\ See Statius Theb. lib. 6. Apollo held the Gorgon head before 
Arion, to enable Cycnus to win the race. Arion threw fire from his 
mane. Rutilse manifestus Arion Igne jubse. 

§ Sec Cnllimachns Expericus, Hist. Attil. 

Q2 



228 ATTILA. 

She bent upon the king, and waved her hand 

All gauntleted with steel, and, pointing South, 

« Back, Attila !" she cried, " back ! back !" but he 

Imperious frown 'd, and with his iron heel 45 

Urged onwards that indomitable steed 

Constrain'd unto his will. Wildly the horse 

Sprang forwards, and beside the spectre fell 

Stretch'd on his mighty flank, as if at once 

Struck by death's angel. From his seat the Hun 50 

Vaulted unharm'd. With sorrow he survey'd 

The comrade of his glorious perils, thus 

Foredone amid his toils ; then turn'd his brow 

Lowering and stern to that portentous shape. 

" Herald of evil, I await my time," 55 

He said ; but, as he spoke, upon his ear 

Sounds came from far of fleeter hoofs, than e'er 

To giant * Zephyrus Harpuia bore, 

And the fierce neighing of unbridled steeds ; 

And shadows flitted by, as when the wrack 60 

Scuds fast before the wind ; whereat from earth 

Sprang Grana, and, as wont, whenever bray'd 

The trumpet's clang for battle, or the call 

Of huntsman sounded in Pannonian wilds, 

Toss'd high his mane, and neigh'd, and snorting flung 65 

His heels aloft ; then, bounding, made escape 

With that ill-ominous phantom to the depths 

Of lemure-haunted Hartz ; and with him went 

The fortunes of him fear'd above mankind. 

Fame saith, in that dark forest he abides, 70 



* Zephurou gigantos aura. iEschyl. Agam. v. 702. Quintus Calaber 
says that Harpuia bore the horse Arion to Zephyrus, lib. 4. 



book xi. 229 

Unbitted, riderless, seen dimly oft 

By some affrighted hind, with headlong course 

Speeding o'er all obstruction, while resounds 

The nightly horn, with voices, not of men, 

Borne faintly on the breeze, and o'er the waste 75 

Pale flickering lights are seen, and evil fires. 

Gloomy and mute the king of nations saw 

His courser fade in distance; but not less 

He journey'd home, nor turn'd aside, nor staid 

His march o'er hill and plain, until he reach'd 80 

The circling belts stupendous, that enclosed 

The mighty space behind Sicambria's strength 

E'en to the skirts of Krapac. There long time 

Within the inmost ring, Avar and Hun 

Stored booty, ravish'd from a thousand realms, 85 

Against intrusion safe : till he, # who smote 

The Saxon and the Lombard, round his brow 

Girding the iron diadem, o'erthrew 

Their old defences, and with lavish hand 

Dispersed amid his peers the hoarded spoil 90 

Of half a world. Champaign, f and wood, and hill, 

Were circumvallated by massive walls 

Of marvellous contexture, with strong trunks 

Infix'd in double row, and all within 

The space was fill'd with ponderous stones and chalk, 95 

Seven paces wide, seven high. Close brazen doors 

Forbad ingression, and with careful gaze 

There watch and ward look'd ever night and day 

To the four winds. The vast circumference stretch'd 

* Charlemain. 
t See the account of Notgerus, the monk of St. Gall, written in the 
time of Charlemain. Sec Hist, treat. § 33.. 



230 ATTILA. 

Thrice fifty leagues, embracing all that lies 100 

Twixt Mora and Tibiscus, glens obscure, 

Or furrowM glebe, hamlets, and pastures green, 

From stately Danau to the arduous steeps 

Where Krapac frowns. Nine walls the inner space 

Concentric shielded, and, with equal front 105 

At various distances enclosing each 

Contracted bounds, presented to the foe 

Like obstacle. Within, ways intricate 

Extended labyrinthine, to misguide 

The invader, and the entering in, when made, 110 

Was perilous, as hard to make. Between, 

Hamlets at equal intervals arose, 

From whence the voice, across the wide expanse 

Repeated often by the brazen trump, 

From warder pass'd to warder, and was sent 115 

From wall to wall ; outstripping mortal speed 

The rumour journey'd from the far confines 

Unto the centre ; where, like that huge pile 

Raised in Sennaar, and seven times girt with walls 

Cyclopean, seat of Enyalius old, 120 

The throne, the altar, and mysterious grove 

Appear, and midmost stands the Armipotent. 

The king of nations, in his fenced house 

Built with gigantic trunks of gnarled oak 

In sylvan architecture framed, with frieze, 125 

And pointed arch adorn'd, and clustering shafts, 

Abode hard by ; like the biformed son 

Of that MinoTan* matron, once in Crete 

Too famous, and condemn'd to live in song ; 

* Paeiphae, mother of the Minotaur. 



BOOK XI. 231 

Or old Deioces,* who unapproach'd 130 

Reign'd in Ecbatana, where sevenfold walls 

Secluded him, with various hues distinct, 

A mighty girdle of successive strength 

Loftier within. The king of men retired 

In that strong hold, enormous Hunniwar, 135 

Held festive merriment. His avid gaze 

Had cast erewhile upon Mycoltha's form 

Evil desires, from which the virgin eye 

Shrank bashfully, and dark aboding dread 

Of his imperious love, more fear'd than hate, 140 

Alarm'd her ; for her secret vows were all 

To bright Andages given, endear'd in vain 

By chaste communion of thoughts interchanged 

In close accordance. The terrific mien 

Of the great king, nor less his bloody creed 145 

Appall'd her heart, which inwardly was turn'd 

Unto Jehovah. With persuasion bland 

Long to Andages had her gentle speech 

Unfolded truth, by her initiate mind 

Seen dimly, and that gracious spell had won 150 

Barbarian valour to the righteous faith 

Stored in her breast. They in some green recess 

Amid sequester'd wilds, oft held discourse 

Of the heart's wishes, the vague hopes and fears 

Which make the course of love run never smooth; 155 

Or with imperfect knowledge raised their thoughts 

* Herodotus states that Ecbatana was a conical town, built with seven 
concentric walls, of seven distinct colours, each inner wall being more 
elevated than the one immediately without. In the highest and inmost 
ring resided Dei'oces king of the Medes, secluding himself from the eyes 
of his subjects. 



232 ATTILA. 

To mild Lucilia's * God, and that sure help 

Wherein she trusted, able to exalt 

In death the mourner to undying joy. 

But brief their dream of happiness, cut short 160 

By Attila's fierce wooing. His desires 

Blazed forth impetuous and unstaid ; the day, 

Misnamed of bridal rites, which should consign 

To his libidinous couch that loveliest flower 

Pluck'd by tyrannic force, as soon as will'd 165 

With joyous proclamation to the host 

Was bruited loud ; nor Bactria's king denied 

Paternal acquiescence. The acclaim, 

Blithesome and loud, o'er young Mycoltha's ear 

Came frightful ; like the warning voice of death, 170 

To her it heralded despair ; to him 

Vain hopes, by short enjoyment to requite 

Pride sorely foil'd. As who upon the wave 

Sail'd with delight, while soft and balmy airs 

LulFd the tumultuous waters, and anon 175 

At midnight startled from unheeding rest 

See the hull glow red hot, and crackling flames 

With wreathed volume climb the sheeted mast 

Fierce and unquenchable, from that terror spring 

Death-doom'd into the gulph ; thus unto these, 180 

From youth's fond dream to agony aroused, 

One slender hope, as little worth, remain'd, 

Flight to the Christian. Nor to them unknown 

The fame of Cyprianus, and the tale 

Of Cameracum's lovely one, f entomb'd 185 

Near Savus by his cell. Thither they plot 

* See Book Third, v. 400. t See Book Sixth, v. 796. 






book xi. 233 

Escape, and in the still ambrosial eve 

Pass thro' the inmost fence on Scythian steeds 

Of swiftest hoof; and well behoves them speed, 

Upon whose steps ere morning may resound 190 

Pursuit relentless as death's angel. Glens 

Darksome and perilous, with winding ways 

Entangled oft and issueless, oft revolved 

Into themselves, obstruction to their flight 

Opposed not. Every labyrinthine pass 195 

To them by use was manifest and plain. 

But long the distance, many a league aloof 

Unto the furthest bourne, to who direct 

Should journey thro' the maze ; and hard to ply 

That course ere morn. The tints of ruddy gold, 200 

Which glow'd upon the firmament, had long 

Bewray'd night's secrets, and the unclouded sun 

Climbing the vault of heaven rode gloriously, 

Ere the eighth brazen door was left behind. 

Fear gave them wings, and tremulous hope their flight 205 

Urged onwards. Listening still with dread intense 

They start at every sound, and fancy oft 

On the unbroken stillness of the air 

The fatal larum brings. At length there came 

A rumour with the breeze ; first indistinct, 210 

It grew upon the ear, till plain and loud 

The inflated trumpet's voice articulate 

Gave warning. Over every glade remote, 

North, South, and East, and West, with one accord 

The simultaneous blast flew diverse, sent 215 

From hamlet unto hamlet, till it reach'd 

The huge circumference, where far aloof 

At one same instant, on the outer belt, 



234 ATTILA. 

Each warder hears the interdicted names 

Blown by sonorous metal ; and what hope 220 

To scape or lie unseen, where each lone vale 

And thicket hath a tongue. Aghast they stand, 

As he, who in some glen, where raging flows 

The rock-imbedded river, swell'd by streams 

From every wooded gill, whose steeps indent 225 

The mountain sloping from its heathy waste, 

Hears the stupendous thunder, which rebounds 

From knoll to knoll, unto the fountain's head 

Reverberated, with appalling din 

Successive and unceasing, like the roar 230 

Of thousand culverins, that vomit death 

Alternating their bolts of vollied fire : 

Nor more terrific was the voice of God 

To our first parents, in the bloomy shades 

Of Eden, when they veil'd their naked forms 235 

From that all-seeing eye, to which are plain 

The hidden things of darkness. Fain would these 

In shadiest coppice from pursuit tonceal'd 

Lurk until dewy eve, with fruitless hope 

To scale the high defences unespied. 240 

As oft, in tangled forests, by the bank 

Of Albis # from Hercynian mountains sprung, 

Or strong Viadrus, who outpours his flood 

Within the Cimbric Chersonese, the stag, 

Close harbour'd in the brake, has heard the chace 245 

Wind down some woody hill with hound and horn ; 

So boding the event, which must unknit 

For ever the corporeal ties, that bind 

• Albis, the Elbe : Viadrus, the Oder. 



hook xi. 235 

Their spirits to each other, on their track 

Nearer and nearer, in the secret wild, 250 

Herulians, and the heavier tread of Huns, 

Hopeless of aid they hear. As if in death 

To be united, for the glowing thoughts 

Of life and bliss shrank back into their souls, 

Close lock'd by the encircling arm they stand 255 

With ear and vision rivetted. That cheek, 

On which the virgin blush is blanch 'd by dread, 

Has touch'd the cheek of her beloved. That form, 

Inwreathed with pudency, clings heedless now 

Unto the grasp of passion, purified 260 

By such a holy sorrow, as disarms 

Love of its perils, and makes coy reserve 

Savour too much of life. One first last kiss 

His lips have fix'd upon her lips ; his eyes 

Have look'd thro' hers into her inmost soul, 265 

And in that transport have their spirits met, 

Pure, sanctified, and not by human force 

To be disjoin'd, or by that fated hour 

Which comes to all. There is a blessedness 

In utter desperation, and the throb 270 

Of grief's acutest agony, which makes 

The heart with such intense devotion glow 

As borders upon joy ; a sense profound 

Of rapturous abstraction from the ills 

That cannot be eschew'd. Twin hearts of love, 275 

By power unrighteous sunder'd, become one 

With a more absolute union, and cohere 

So much in spirit more. The short delight 

By tyranny permitted has a thrill 

Of such deep-seated strength, as makes the bliss 280 



236 ATTILA. 

Of sweet and gratified security 

A worthless thing, that loses by compare 

And palls upon the sense. The joy of years 

Was center'd in that one, that brief, embrace ; 

The memory of wishes past and won ; 285 

The bright anticipation of desires 

With which the pulse beat high. The ardent soul 

Denuded of all earthly hope, turn'd back 

Unto itself, and from that sacred source 

Drew a new hope, unquenchable, entire 290 

In its removal from the things of sense, 

And mightier than death. That moment, worth 

Ages of listless life, sped swiftly down 

The stream, which wafts man to eternity ; 

For blythe and loud the tuneful clangor told 295 

Pursuit concluded, from their oaken shades 

Scaring the Dryads, like the jovial mort 

Sounded by foresters, wherewith each glade 

Thro' the deep greenwood wakes. Responsive notes 

Took up the message, which with brazen voice 300 

From ring to ring flew quickly, till it reaeh'd 

The mid high place and Enyalian grove, 

Where, chafed by rage, upon the central tower 

The pagan bent his ear, till that shrill strain, 

According with his passions, brought relief 305 

Unto the demon in his iron heart 

Abiding. To drear prison, and to death 

Ere morning dawn again, that voice, which ne'er 

Hath known remission of its will, assigns 

Captive Andages; the recover'd bride 310 

Strict ward awaits, and honourable chains, 

Till it shall please the tyrant to install 






book xi. 237 

Her in his vicious chamber, to her thoughts 
More loathly, than the dark abode of death. 

Thus they in green Pannonia ; nor that while 315 
The mailed queen in her Burgundian bower 
Reclined at ease. By many a potent spell 
Brought near unto her vision, she had spied 
The standards late at Acroventus rear'd, 
War's glittering pomp which boasted to destroy 320 

Rome's majesty. She saw the spectral forms 
Of those men sanctified, before whom quail'd 
The champion of the Accurst. E'en then she knew 
The sceptre wrested from him, and his strength 
To the Avenger given. With haste uprose 325 

Stern Hilda, beauteous as the queen of love 
From Acidalian bowers ; the hectic flush 
Of vengeful passions and atrocious joy 
Glow'd on her blooming cheeks. The helmet press'd 
Her raven locks, and all o'erlaid with gold 330 

Sheen armour cased her limbs ; beauty supreme 
Sat shrined upon her bright majestic brow, 
While from her dark-fringed eyelids beam'd the power 
To kindle and to slay, voluptuous charms, 
Remorseless inextinguishable hate, 335 

High-burning wrath. She sought the loathed abode 
Of Gunther, to whose bed by treason given 
She dwelt estranged from love, with might and scorn 
Denying his approach. " Arise," she cried, 
" If ever love within thee, or bold hopes 340 

" Have lit a generous spark. The heaven-sent plague 
" Vexes e'en now the Hun, and with poised wing 
" Destruction hovers o'er his host. Arise, 
i( And be the minister of deadly hate ! 



'238 ATTILA. 

" Revenge must blot the treason out, that soil'd 345 

" My wedded couch with shame. I brook not, I, 

" Two husbands ; nor divide to mortal man 

" Or bland endearments, or the power which makes 

" Man higher than the angels. Choose thou scorn 

" And hatred that shall wither all thine hopes 350 

" Now and hereafter, or the long-sought meed 

" Which I unwilling to revenge assign, 

" Gentle acceptance; and therewith, the might 

" That springs from Scandian magic, and the old lore 

" Of that dark cabbala,* to Gozan brought 355 

" By Shalmanezar's captives, or the signs f 

" Symbolic, borne to utmost Orient 

" By Manes, wisest of the sons of earth. 

" Arise, and seal with sacramental blood 

" Our hymeneals, and supremely blest 360 

" With Hilda reign P This said, on him she bent 

A smile so full of witchery, it stole 

His senses, and o'er all his thoughts enthrall' d 

Such blandishment and soft persuasion threw, 

That life seem'd nothing worth, without the love 365 

Of that pernicious matron, won by guilt. 

She left him, wedded to the snares of sin, 

In treason to devise the means of blood 

With Hagen, from whose arm fraternal aid 

Ne'er fail'd at need. With guile they must approach 

The lord of nations, at his festive board 

* See 2 Kings xvii. The captive Israelites were placed in Halah and 
in Habor, by the river Gozan and the cities of the Medes. " They — used 
divinations and enchantments, and sold themselves to do evil in the 
sight of the Lord; — and the Lord rejected all the seed of Israel,'' &c 
t Sop Nimrod, v. 2. p. 512. 



book xi. 2.39 

Unfaithful guests, or in the joyful chace 

Surprise him, hopeless, with Burgundian steel, 

To beard him in his lair. The wily queen, 

So best to lull suspicion, at his court 375 

Unwelcome, hails him with perfidious smiles. 

Not that famed girdle,* by the Goddess worn 

In Paphos, or Cythera's myrtle groves, 

Wherein were all things woven, that pertain 

To tender sympathies, hope, love, desire, 380 

And amorous whispers, and persuasive sighs, 

Wound round the Cyprian queen a fresher spell 

Ambrosial, than o'er Hilda's form was thrown 

By native grace, which needed scarce the aid 

Of glamorous charms. Upon her parent scowl'd 385 

Young Eskam,f fair alike, and by foul ties 

Alike polluted. Anger, born of vice, 

Soon grew between the twain, contentious boast, 

Recrimination, jealousy, and strife, 

Scourges concomitant of double vows 390 

And a divided hearth, ever since first 

Adah and Zillah f with no blessing crown'd 

The patriarch's evil couch. So fair, so curst, 

Were never seen. With lowering brow incensed 

The monarch frown'd, nor ought of w r eal divined 395 

From that repudiated sister queen, 

Who came with sunny smiles, but in her heart 



* See Iliad 14. 214. 

t See Book third, v. 234, and Hist, treatise, § 30. 

t See Genesis iv. 23. Different explanations have been given of 

this verse, but Lamech seems to have been guilty of some great 

abomination, in which his two wives, whom he addresses, were 

concerned. 



240 ATTILA. 

Cover'd deep hate. From Eskam's wary eye 
Suspicious glances upon Hilda fell ; 
While many a word of dark aboding spoke 400 

That younger fair-one, in her mother's arts 
Initiated, and strange prophetic dreams # 
Her warning tongue declared. " Methought 1 lay 
Beside thee, glorious king, beneath the shade 
Of some huge cedar, whose ambitious boughs 405 
Spread over land and flood ; the mossy turf, 
Which there we press'd, from odoriferous flowers 
Breathed fragrance, while around the landscape smiled 
Serenely fair, and spirits, from on high 
Descending, o'er thy gracious forehead pour'd 410 
Ambrosial unction. Sudden the bright scene 
Was darken'd like to twilight, and two boars 
With bristling backs, and tusks that tore the ground, 
Burst from the brake. I shrank, and closed mine eyes, 
Shunning the sight of what I dared not view ; 415 
But on mine ears unearthly turmoil came, 
And, when I look'd in terror, from my side 
Thou wert evanish'd, but the sod was stain'd 
And blood was on my robe. Methought with thee 
I floated on a barque of silver sheen, 420 

And its spread sails were beautiful, of silk 
Broider'd with gold ; the glossy cordage made 



* In the Niebelungenlied, the younger Hilda (Chrimhilda) says, 
" I dream'd to-day with anguish, that two wild boars, beloved, 
Pursued thee o'er the heath j the blossoms then grew red." 
And again, 

" I dream'd to-day with anguish, that o'er thee in the vale 
Two mountains headlong fell ; I saw thee then no more." 

Advent. 1G. st. 6 and 9. 






BOOK XI. 241 

$< Soft music to the breeze, which seem'd to spring 
" From blest Arabia's incense-breathing fields ; 
" And down the flood we glided thro' fresh meads 425 
" Of balmy verdure, while the tranquil stream 
" Scarce rippled round the helm. Anon I heard 
" A sound of rushing waters, and two rocks 
" Darkling o'erbrow'd its course; I veil'd my face, 
66 Unequal to confront with stedfast eye 430 

■" The ghastly peril. Then a crash ensued, 
" As of rent mountains, by whose headlong fall 
" The wave was dash'd to heaven. I look'd, and all 
" Was tranquil, but upon a sea of blood 
" I sail'd alone. Once more methought I lay 435 

" Upon a gorgeous couch, and thou, great king, 
" O'er-canopied with crimson majesty 
" Didst there sit nigh me, while Italian slaves 
" Drew cheerful melody from gilded lyres, 
" And pleasant viands and bright-sparkling wines 440 
" Were there, and the sweet voice of song. Anon 
" Two hateful serpents slowly seem'd to creep, 
" Under thy mantle of zibelline fur 
" Coiling their loathsome folds ; I turn'd to fly, 
" When, lo ! behind, a sorceress malign 445 

" Stood smiling, and forthwith I was alone, 
" But still my dream was blood." The damsel ceased, 
And, as she spoke, on conscious Hilda's face 
A hue intenser glow'd, while stern the Hun 
Regarded her. No voice was in the hall, 450 

For wonder seaFd each lip. In luckless hour 
The traitorous princes to that festive court 
Made entrance, with Burgundian armour clad, 
And hung about with rings and massive chains 

B 



242 ATTILA. 

Of gold, the heir-looms of Nibelungian dukes. 455 

Unbidden guests, but, ever to his board 

Made welcome, the high vassals humbly take 

The seat assign'd. To noble Gunther straight, 

Her lord espoused, the bright-flush'd Hilda rose. 

Therewith (for she, to whom the book of fate 460 

Reveal'd its secret warnings, well had mark'd 

Hate furrowing the king's irascent brow) 

Into her husband's hand she pass'd a ring 

In wolf-skin * closely wrapt. Too late he knew 

The ominous symbol, and to Hagen gave 465 

That brindled spoil, which bade them to beware 

The unrelenting Hun, upon whose face 

The wolfish scowl sat deeply then impress'd, 

Remorseless, terrible, announcing death. 

That instant from his seat, bereft of hope, 470 

Undaunted Hagen sprang, for well he saw 

Fate in that sign, and deem'd it valour's part 

To sell life dearly. As he rose, forth flamed 

A thousand swords against the traitor's arm, 

And bloody strife began. Seven Huns bit earth 475 

Successive under Hagen's desperate stroke, 

Ere, broken in his grasp, the faithless steel 

Betray'd him to his fate. A whisper'd word 

Spake Attila, so dread, that he, who bare 

The message, quiver'd with pale lip, and cheek 480 

By horror blanch'd. Silent they bared the breast 

Of Hagen, and with blade of temper fine 

From his unflinching breast the living heart 



• This anecdote is stated in the Nibelungenlied, and in the Edda. 
Scandinavian and Teutonic legends teem with accounts of these trans- 
actions, and the events which preceded and followed them. 



book xi. • 248 

Cut fiercely. Warm, and throbbing still with blood, 

They placed it on a charger chased with gold, 485 

And bore it, reeking with a brother's death, 

To Gunther, prison'd in a glimmering vault, 

Where lights burn evermore beneath the shrine 

Of Scythian Mars, and priests tend night and day 

Vipers obscene, for mystic orgies # train'd. 490 

By those fell snakes, or hunger's gnawing tooth, 

Unpitied he must die, the odious meal, 

A brother's heart before him ; by his side 

A Grecian lyre was placed, wherewith to charm, 

If music might prevail, that scaly brood ; 495 

Nor he the boon rejected, but with skill 

Struck the harmonious chords, and sung the deeds 

Of his forefathers in the nebulous isle,f 

Despising death ; and haply he had won 

Hearing from stones by that heart-stirring lay, 500 

But those imprison'd reptiles close their ears 

Against the charmer's art, although he touch 

Orphean strings, and wake the liquid notes 

With sweeter tone, than from her starry choir 

Unto Thessalian valleys ever drew 505 

Cold Dian. Round him with offensive coil 

Sibilant they glide, or pierce with venom'd fang 

The flesh exposed ; but he in scorn of death 

* From the manner in which the snake-chamher is mentioned in old 
Scandinavian writings, it would seem that the reptiles were kept for 
some superstitious purpose. Epiphanius (Anacephal. Paris, 1622. v. 2. 
p. 142) says, that " the Ophites, venerating the serpent, and holding it 
to be the Christ, keep the reptile in a sort of chest." Regner Lodbrok 
is said to have been cast by Ella into the snake-chamber. 

t Bornholm in the Baltic, called in Regner's quida, Borgunchir- 
holm or Burgundian isle. 

b *2 



244 ATTTLA. 

Prolong'd the glorious strain, and still, when stiff 
He lay upon that dismal floor, though mute, 510 

He grasp'd the lyre ; while through the tuneful chords, 
And o'er his wavy locks and beauteous frame, 
The hateful reptiles revell'd unrestrain'd. 

So heathendom work'd evil to itself 
Conflicting; while aloof the fiendish host 515 

Held council, gather'd in the crystal hall, 
Where Boreas # eagle- wing'd from bloomy Greece 
Bore Orithyia, by his icy grasp 
Encircled. In that awful dome, that guards 
The hinges of the world, beneath the vault 520 

Resplendent with a thousand nightly fires, 
The iron shape of Enyalius dwells ; 
And from his breath goes forth to lash the globe 
Keen Aquilon, and many a kindred blast, 
Caurus, or bleak Iapyx ; while around 525 

Myriads of spirituous natures swarm, 
Genii malign, that wave their untired f wings 
Beneath the banner'd morning of the north 
Unceasing, to speed on the windy breath, 
Beyond the Hyperboreans and cold realms 530 

Which Acheron J laves, unto the azure skies 
Of the far South, where Hyperion's ray 
Upon swart Meroe or Numidian groves 



* The northern nations placed the abode of the evil one near the 
North pole, " In Septrionalibus sive aquilonaribus locis, ubi literali 
sensu sedes est Satanae." — Olaus Magnus, lib. 3. c. 22. 

t A belief prevailed amongst the Northern nations that the winds 
proceeded from the motion of the wings of evil spirits in the shape of 
flies. 1 have mislaid the reference. 

% See Orph. Arg. v. 1129. 






book xi. 245 

Showers genial warmth. In that abode the Accurst, 

Nothing discomfited, hatch'd newer schemes 535 

Of treason to the Allwise and hate to man ; 

While over head the northern streamers glanced 

Mocking the hues of Iris, the pale beams 

Of silver Dian, and the flood of light 

That issues from the opening gates of dawn. 540 

The Archfiend, seated on his Arctic throne, 

Where winter dwells with night, to each inspires 

Daring and subtle guile, wherewith to lead 

Man devious from his good Creator's word, 

And with delusions, though delay'd, prepare 545 

The way of Antichrist. Nor long debate 

Needed to beings, that propense to ill 

Are ever lithe to weave the web of fraud, 

From their corrupted essence sure to yield 

Evil procedures. They throughout the world, 550 

Each to his impious work, flew numberless ; 

But ever ready at their leader's call 

To congregate, and revel in the haunts 

Where sin abounds. He darkling wing'd his course 

Once more to the great city. By the dome 555 

Of the Pantheon his keen glance descried 

Ariel,* the spirit of immortal Rome, 

Weeping angelic tears. The Guileful one 

Approach'd him, with persuasive accents bland ; 

As when, thro' woman's ministry, by him 560 



* Ariel was the cabbalistic name of the angel of Rome, as Raziel was 
the guardian angel of Adam, Zadkiel of Abraham, Gabriel of Joseph. 
See Arch. Minor. Comm. Cab. p. 813. Reuchlin Art. Cabbalist. 1. 1. 
p. 625. Rubiel, if I recollect right, was the angel of Persia. 



246 ATTILA. 

Deceived unto her ruin, he acquired 

Knowledge, which, seeming pleasant, unto her 

Travail and death, but brought unto himself 

Facility of ill, and clearer sight, 

Whereby to mar the works of the Benign. 565 

Then thus, " Why weeps the guardian power of Rome ? 

" While battle's tide from her uninjured walls 

" Hath turn'd its crimson wave. The years have been, 

" Ariel, when on the Capitol enshrined 

" With thee I watch'd o'er the Mavortian town, 570 

" Wielding her mighty destinies ; and still 

" In days unborn her glories should be mine. 

" What cause, or past, or of imagined harm, 

*' Draws pity, like Aurora's pearly dew, 

" From thy beatitude? Is Rome foredoom'd 575 

" To perish, whose charm'd thread was spun with thine 

u Coeval, and to one existence chain'd ?" 

To him the mournful spirit. u Not that Rome 
" Shall stoop, proud angel, to the Hunnish sword; 
" Not for my being mourn I, which shall long 580 

" Endure with her, o'er whose appointed years 
" From her Romulean cradle I have hung 
" Solicitous ; nor do I read so ill 
" The oracles of heaven, which pride to thee 
" Ever obscures, by thy presumptuous will 585 

" So shaping the event, that, seeing, thou 
" Dost tread in darkness. The grim-visaged Hun 
" Shall never lord o'er these Tarpeian fanes. 
" His span of greatness by the Almighty hand 
" That gives and takes, that raises and destroys, 590 
" Is measured; and, while twelve more ages creep 
* ' Into the gulph of time, as none hath been, 



book xi. 247 

There shall be none his equal ; till that one 

Foredoom'd to wear the purple of the West, 

And shake the thrones of earth, in all things like 595 

To him now cinctured with ambition's crown, 

Shall once again on Catalaunum's field 

Confront the banded world. I see thy pomp, 

Napoleon, in the lap of distant years, 

The glories of thine host ! thy folded arms, 600 

The deep thought born beneath thy lowering brow ! 

The lightning of thine eyes, the instant flash 

Of thy great daring, equal in reverse 

And in the flood of power ! swift to resolve, 

And swifter to achieve ! But, far aloof 605 

Where ocean thunders round the barren rocks, 

I see the willow of a sunburnt isle 

Wave o'er thy lonely tomb, telling to man 

The nothingness of all, that ever dared 

Exalt themselves on earth. I cannot spell 610 

Whether in years revolving the Allwise 

Sends back the same proud spirit, here to breathe 

Its mightiness into decaying clay, 

Or, in eternal majesty retired, 

Forms a new being in the self-same mould 615 

Ethereal, like a meteor to amaze 

And castigate mankind : but this I know 

Predestined ; the strong arm, which ere two years 

Shall rend the glory from Rome's forehead, comes 

Not from the Scythian realms of Aquilon, 620 

Not from the heathen gathering, now leagued 

Against Jehovah's law ; the might * ordain'd 



* Genseric the Vandal. 



248 ATTILA. 

" To do His will, shall spring with sudden swoop 
" From burnt Numidia; he,* who must destroy 
" Ere twenty summers her imperial crown 625 

" Shall not be of the pagans. One baptized 
" Will shiver the Quirinal throne : but not 
" Vandalic violation, not the strength 
" Of fierce Odoacer, or him f erelong 
" Appointed on his Gothic front to bind 630 

" Italia's diadem, down Ariel's cheek 
" Draws sorrow, such as the Messiah shed 
" Over Jerusalem, with earthly dross 
" Unmix'd, and pure of sublunary pride. 
" I weep that, though no pagan sign reveal'd 635 

" Shall lord over the Vatican, no voice 
" Curse the Redeemer in Jehovah's fane, 
" Thy foot shall still be there. Rebellious Prince, 
" I know thee. Though too feeble to withstand 
" The Lord of Hosts, by subtle artifice 640 

f * Invading e'en his house, thou wilt pollute 
•' My well-beloved. I see thee nestle there 
' Beneath the mitre, which shall soon usurp 
' Unholy power, of hierarchal pride 
'* Spreading the mantle over secret sins, 645 

k Murder, and bloated lust, and fouler still 
' Hypocrisy, that sells for worldly dross 
' License of guilt. I hear the secret moan 
' From loathsome vaults, where Superstition stalks 
4 A dark inquisitress. The cowl of peace 650 

' Shall veil thee, gauding in the face of heaven, 
' And lighting such dire holocausts, as Mars 

* Odoacfr. t Theodoric. 



book xi. 249 

*' In fulness of his homicidal sway 
" Ne'er snuff 'd upon Bistonian altars, red 
" With impious sacrifice. Therefore I mourn 655 

" God's name profaned, and this great city, to which 
" My essence by the mystery of love 
" Is ever link'd, of thy pernicious will 
" The self-polluted victim. Mid thine host 
" Estranged from the angelic choir, I drew 660 

" Such birth, as spiritual beings know ; 
" And by the secret flame, which burnt unseen 
" On Vesta's hearth, I brooded over Rome's 
" Arising greatness, and mine infant wings 
' ' O'ershadow'd her idolatries ; and still, 665 

' ' As ages glided on, my fostering care 
" Tended her glory, and upheld her walls 
" Aspersed with gore. But me, though late redeem'd 
" From error, the bright angel, who o'erthrew 
" Thine evil temples, with celestial light 670 

' ' Sprinkled, and o'er mine alter'd nature threw 
ki The dewy radiance of beatitude. 
" And well I know, more ages shall pass on, 
" Than Rome and I have number'd, since the blood 
" Of Remus stain'd her ; yet there shall not want 675 
" A temple on these hills, wherein to praise 
" The Holy One of Israel, nor pure hearts 
Vk Mid the corrupted flock to laud his name." 
Sad Ariel ceased ; and of rebuke the fiend 
Impatient scowl'd, nor tarried to reply ; 680 

But, serpent-like, thro' Rome's effeminate court 
With evil purpose and insidious step 
He glided, sowing rumours, and mistrust 
Between Actius and his wanton lord, 



250 ATTILA. 

Which soon shall blossom into deadliest feuds, 685 

Fatal to Rome. Treason by treason foil'd 

Shall strip her walls of strength, and the fell curse 

Of discord, fed with bloated murder, yield 

Her domes unto the Vandal, her bright pomp, 

Her wealth, her women, to barbarian force. 690 



ATTILA. 



BOOK TWELFTH. 

Fairest and loveliest of created things, 

By our great Author in the image form'd 

Of His celestial glory, and design 'd 

To be man's solace ! undefiled by sin 

How much dost thou exceed all earthly shapes 5 

Of beautiful, to charm the wistful eye, 

Bland to the touch, or precious in the use ! 

His treasure of delight, while the fresh prime 

Adorns his forehead with the joy of youth, 

His comfort in the winter of the soul ! 10 

Chaste woman ! thou art e'en a brighter gem 

To him, who wears thee, than e'er shone display 'd 

Upon the monarch's diadem ; a charm 

More sweet to lull all sorrow, than the tint 

Of spring's young verdure in the dewy morn, 15 

Or music's mellow tones, which floating come 

Over the water, like a fairy dream ! 

Thou hangest, as a wreath, upon his neck, 

More fragrant than the rose, in thy pure garb 

Of blushing gentleness. Thou art a joy 20 

More sprightly than the lark in vernal suns 

Pouring his throat to heaven, or forest call 

By blithesome Dryads blown ; a faithful stay 



252 ATTILA. 

In all the world's mischances ; a help meet 

For man in sickness, and decay, and death. 25 

Thou art more precious than * an only child 

In weary age begotten, a clear spring 

Amid the desert, an unhoped for land 

To baffled mariners, or dawn of day 

To who has press'd all night a fever'd couch. 30 

O wherefore, best desired and most beloved 

Of all Heaven's works, O wherefore wert thou made 

To be our curse, as well as blessing ! lured 

From thy first shape of innocence, to become 

A thing abased by guilt, and more deform'd, 35 

As thine original glory was more bright ! 

Beauteous, as those fair daughters of mankind 
Who perish'd in the flood, (when all flesh had 

His way corrupted, and Jehovah bared 

His red right-hand, to punish those, whose hearts 40 

Imagined evil only, sold to sin) 

If not more lovely, and more lost in guilt, 

Over her blighted treason Hilda pored, 

From ill commencement hatching worse event. 

It little skills, what tho' her crude revenge 45 

Abortive hath made wreck, but to bring forth 

More cruel retribution and the fruit 

Of deadlier hate. Two blooming sons had crown'd 

The couch of incest, to the royal Hun 

From beauteous Eskam born; Erpur, the joy 50 

Of her first pangs, and younger Eitill. They, 

Wielding the toys of war, within the grove 

Play'd unsuspicious of the bloody fate 



* See ^Eschylus Agamemnon. 



book xi r. *25'3 

That scowl'd upon their mirth. Them she decoy'd 

By arts, that win a child's credulity, 55 

And nail'd upon the cross their downy limbs, 

Than which the magic of blood-guiltiness 

Boasted no stronger spell. Then with the blade 

Mysterious, cruciform, (which shadow'd forth 

The threefold shape of that unholy fosse, 60 

Wherein iEcea's # fratricidal maid 

Unto the dark ones unapproach'd, unseen, 

Made sacrifice) the inexorable queen 

Their heads dissever'd. In her bowl accurst 

The blood froth'd rosy-red. Their f tender flesh, 65 

Cut from the limbs, her unrelenting hand 

Into her cauldron cast, with mixtures strange 

And honied condiment to please the gust, 

A Thyestean meal ; nor did the Sun 

Eclipse his light, nor turn his coursers back 70 

Thro' the empyrean, harden'd now to see 

The things done under him. " Ne'er shall these climb 

" A father's knee," the fierce enchantress cried, 

" Nor wave the Scythian sword, nor bend the bow 

" Triumphant, nor bestride the neighing steed. 75 

" Rejoice, ungrateful brother ! Sate thee now 

" With blood of these thy little ones ! nor hope, 

" Hated by Hilda most, as once most loved, 

" To scape the vengeance, that in darkness strikes !" 

She spoke the deadly menace, and straightway 80 

A deep-heaved sigh was heard, and on her neck 

The touch, as of an icy hand, was laid ; 

* Medea. See Orph. Argon. The unholy fosse is the cruciform ditch 
(bothros trietoichos) into which the blood of the victims was poured. 
t See the Scandinavian legends. 



254 ATTILA. 

And she, who ne'er before the Archfiend quail'd, 
Shrunk at that warning ; so doth guilt unman 
The sternest heart, and turn to coward thoughts 85 

The daring of who lives without his God. 

With sumptuous pomp the Hunnish banquet spread 
Adorns the regal hall. Due sacrifice 
And all that appertains to mystic rites 
Of Scythian bridal done, the joyous court 90 

Holds wassail, nor regards the speechless grief 
Of pale Mycoltha, mid that revelling, 
Tho' tired in blazonry of nuptial pomp, 
Hopeless of earthly help, and sunk in wo 
Too deep for utterance. The monarch sat 95 

Upon his throne in silence ; while the strains 
Of minstrels on his ears pour'd notes unchaste, 
Such as oft warbled on the festive day 
Of Babylonian Venus, or on hills 

Sacred to Bacchus, where the maddening rout 100 

Cried CEvce ! braiding their crisp locks with vine, 
Exhilaration waked and wanton joy. 
The king, tho' nothing wont, drank long and deep ; 
And ever, as he touch'd the fiendish meal, 
Or to his lips unconscious raised the cup 105 

By Hilda's treason mix'd, o'er her flush'd cheek 
A brighter crimson pass'd. Thus they below, 
While legions of foul beings over head 
Held merriment ; unearthly faces lurk'd 
Behind each shaft; some thought the pallid face 110 
Of murder'd * Bleda look'd upon them ; some 



* The brother of Attila, murdered by him. Rhuas was his uncle, 
falsely reputed amongst the Greeks to have been killed by fire from 
heaven. 



book xii. 255 

The ghastly form of Rhuas seem'd to espy, 

The blue fire round him wreathing ; but shame tied 

Their tongues, and none unto his fellow spoke 

His phantasy ; the timber from the wall 115 

Sent forth a voice unheard, and the dumb stones 

Found airy speech to syllable their dread. 

The night was mirky, and unwholesome mist 
Hung o'er the grove and high place, to the Accurst 
Rear'd nigh the palace. The carouse was hush'd, 120 
And to his bridal bower the monarch stepp'd 
Secure of ill ; from his voluptuous couch 
Never to issue in the pride of life, 
Nor gird the sword, nor fulmine more the law 
That wars against the spirit. Within, more pale 125 
Than her clear virgin robe, with mournful eyes 
Set on a crucifix of silver, knelt 
Mycoltha. In despair her heart was turn'd 
Unto her God, and purified by grief 
Was wholly with its Maker. A still voice 130 

Whisper'd beneath her bosom, that to Him 
All things are possible, and mortal strength 
But chaff before His breath. She rose as calm 
To meet him, as if maiden pudency 
Had nought to dread. A secret strength, breathed forth 
As from the Highest, who is ever nigh 
Those that with faithfulness and truth approach 
His throne in prayer, upheld her ; and she stood 
So beautiful, so tranquil, that she seem'd 
A thing too sanctified for mortal love. 140 

But not to Attila forbearance mild 
Or stay of passion came. By beauty's sight 
And that abominable meal inflamed 



*256 ATTILA. 

His throbbing pulse beat high ; fierce rapture lit 

His ardent gaze, and as of right he laid 145 

Unholy touch upon her loveliness. 

" Forbear, great king," the virgin spoke with port 

Majestic, (and therewith her feeble hand 

Upon the dire teraphim, that adorn'd 

His kingly breast with ruddy gold enchased, 1 50 

She placed repulsive.) " There is One above, 

" Can make the worm, whereon oppression treads, 

" A stumbling-block to giants. Whether He wills, 

" For some wise end, that these weak limbs, which are 

" The temple of His Spirit, be made vile 155 

" By thy polluting force or not, I know 

" That my Redeemer liveth, and His arm, 

" Which shall upraise me incorruptible 

" And pure before my God, by the frail hand 

" Of woman from the majesty of rule 160 

" Can hurl thee, if He will. O thou, great Lord, 

" Who, as the Hebrews tell, adjured didst give 

" The Danite blind Thy might, to overthrow 

" The Philistines and all their sculptured gods, 

" Arm me with strength !" 

This said, her young frame nerved 165 
By ecstasy of heaven-descended hope 
She flung the strong one from her, as the reed 
Stoops to the wind. O God ! Thine arm was there ! 
The mighty one of earth, who in thine house 
Boasted to plant the abomination, lay 170 

Upon his couch a corse, from nose, mouth, ears, 
Ejecting blood; the gurgling fountain choked 
All utterance. Stretch'd in stillest ghastliness 
There the world's dread, the terrible, the scourge 



book xii. 257 

Of nations, the blasphemer, is become 175 

As nothing before thy consuming wrath ; 

His kingdom is departed. On that night 

In Byzance, by the purpled-chamber'd sleep 

Of * Marcian, stood the spectre robed in gloom 

Of him, whose name shook Europe. How unlike 180 

That Attila, whose power resistless shook 

Italia, dreaded from the utmost bounds 

Of Ithagurus, and thy frozen ridge, 

Imaus, e'en to Rome ! His cheek was wan, 

Rayless and dim those eyes, that wont to blaze 185 

Ferocious ; pride sat darkling on his brow, 

Irreconcilable hatred and despair. 

His bow was bent ; the arrow wing'd with death 

Trembled on the tight string. Then, with a clang 

That seem'd to shake from its gigantic base 190 

Constantinople, and all her massive towers, 

The strong yew snapp'd; wherewith a shout was sent 

Far echoed from the Bosporus, a cry 

Triumphal, and the unextinguish'd peal 

Of holy gratulation ; voices raised 1 95 

At dead of night, by some exulting choir 

Hymning seraphic strains and sacred joy, 

As if each marble tomb had yielded up 

Its martyrs, and the sainted limbs of those 

Who died for Christ, to swell the choral chaunt 200 

O'er the downfall of the blasphemer's power. 

From the closed chamber where the painim king 
Lay stretch'd in death, no voice or sound went forth 
Upon the silent night. Hilda without 

* The Eastern emperor. 

S 



258 ATTILA. 

In golden armour and plumed helm array'd 205 

Stood listening, and, with her conjured, the sons 

Of Hagen, thirsting to avenge their sire. 

A potent spell of slumber she had thrown 

Over the palace sentinels, and now 

Insidious stole to slay a brother, sunk 210 

In sleep oppressive by the hateful cup 

Drugg'd with her hellish art ; then breathed she words, 

Whereat the brazen bolts forsook their hold 

By strange enforcement drawn. The ponderous door 

Spontaneous, wheeling on its soundless hinge, 215 

Disclosed the bed of death. Astonied stood 

The fratricidal queen, prevented thus 

By the grim Power. The lord of nations lay 

With teeth clench'd, rigid limbs, and eyes that still 

Shone terrible, in glazed stillness fix'd. 220 

Beside the couch, as motionless, as mute, 

Mycoltha knelt, with hands together clasp'd 

And face upraised ; as if amazement held 

Her senses chain'd, and inward prayer and praise 

From the full heart were silently outpour'd. 225 

A modest veil half shrouded her ; but full 

On Hilda's mailed form the lustre stream'd 

From a suspended lamp, wherein all night 

Burn'd odoriferous oils. With naked sword 

She stood like a bright statue, touch'd with awe 230 

Of what, undone, she would have gladly wrought, 

But, done, appalPd her. There is oft in guilt 

An afterthought, a sickness of the soul, 

Which makes that most abhorr'd, when gain'd, which late 

Was the heart's master-passion. Who had then 235 

Beheld that impious one, might ill have read 






book xii. 259 

The feelings manifold, conflicting, stamp'd 
On her resplendent visage ; for the thoughts 
Of other times came o'er her like a flood, 
The phantom of days gone ; the dream of all 240 

That he had been to her and she to him, 
In infancy, in youth, in guilt, in power ; 
And then the damning memory of deeds 
Just done in blood, which all her drowsy spells 
Shall never lull. Awhile she paused, and then, 245 
Collecting all her stubborn soul, aroused 
The sleeping warders ; and forthwith the cry 
Of wailing startled the dull ear of night. 
Alone long hours she watch'd beside the corse, 
Nor gave access to any, until the sun 250 

Blazed forth in heaven ; and those who stood without 
Heard in that chamber voices strange and low, 
And fearful laughter, and not mortal sounds ; 
And some averr'd, the dead king sat erect 
Raised by her spells, and converse held all night 255 
In that conclave. But, when the morning dawn'd, 
She threw the portals wide, and there he lay 
In the same frightful stiffness. She bade rear 
A pyre, as for Mavortian sacrifice, 

Upon the open plain. From him they wash'd 260 

The clotted gore, and fragrant unction pour'd 
Over the icy limbs. Under a tent 
Of silken tissue, purl'd with golden twine, 
All day he lay in state ; upon the bier 
With gorgeous pomp in furry mantle robed 265 

They placed him midst his army, not bewail'd 
By tears of women, but by blood of men, 
Who cicatrized their cheeks, and cut their hair. 

s 2 



260 ATTILA. 

Lamenting ; while with measured pace and slow 

The flower of Hunnish chivalry around 270 

Lugubrious wheel'd, or clash'd in mimic fight 

Their weapons, and careering swept the plain ; 

And ever and anon they raised the chaunt 

In solemn tone, praising his deeds in war, 

And that vast empire, which alone of men 275 

He had possess'd. " Who of the sons of earth, 

" Save thee," they cried, " hath e'er his sceptre stretch'd 

" From Sera, which remotest * Bautes laves, 

" From ocean's islands bound by Scandian frost, 

" Unto the realms of Hesperus ! and, of Rome 280 

" Lashing the kindred thrones, from East and West 

" Drawn tribute ! Mightiest of the mighty, hail ! 

" Not slain by foemen, not by fraud o'ercome, 

" But, in the fulness of thy strength and sway 

" With glory to thy fathers gone, untouch'd 285 

" By pain or sorrow, from the bed of joy ! 

" Attila, mightiest of the mighty !" Oft 

With multitudinous voices, to the sound 

Of martial instruments attuned, thus they 

His name exalted, deeming blest the close 290 

Of that unhousel'd life, which cut him short 

Amidst his sin ; for o'er their darken'd minds 

The prince of this world reign'd. Such honours paid, 

Blythe feasting and carousal deep they hold, 

Prolonging unto night their revelry 295 

With boastful words, loud song, and heedless brawl. 

The board surcharged with sumptuous viands smoked, 



* Bautisus, seu potius Bautes, ut in cod. Grsec. Quiam, fluvius 
maximus Sericse, Banthisis a Marcellino dictus. Baudrand Lex. 
Geograph. 



BOOK XII. 261 

Four courses upon silver plate and gold, 

On brass successive, and on iron, served, 

A mystic meal. Then forth was brought with pomp 300 

All that remain'd of Attila, close pent 

In three metallic coffins ; one of gold, 

The second silver, like the head and breast 

Of that huge form, which Labynetus # dream'd 

Prophetic, nor the shape portentous knew, 305 

Till Belteshazzar had the might divined 

Of Babylon and the Mede. The third was form'd 

Of that Mavortian steel by which he reign'd, 

Iron unmix'd with clay. No brass was there, 

For the Greek crown was wanting, and great Rome 310 

Still held divided power, which soon the f Stone 

Unhewn shall bruise to atoms, and become 

A mountain, overshadowing the earth. 

Nigh that marmorean dwelling of the dead, 

Kaiazo, where revered Cadica lies 315 

Entomb'd with Cheva and Balamber old, 

At dead of night the monarch was inhumed 

With secret rites mysteriously ; and he, 

Who lived in darkness, was in darkness given 

Dust unto dust. Within his vault they placed 320 

Arms of the slain, by him in battle won, 

Trappings o'erlaid with gems, and plumed casques, 

And standards manifold, from Greece and Rome, 

From the famed Avars torn, or those who tread 

Far Thule, and the sons of gloomy X Dis 325 

* Nebuchadnezzar. See Daniel ii. 31 . 
t The kingdom of God. See Daniel ii. 34, and 44. 
X Pluto.— The Gauls say they are sprung from Dis, and therefor* 
reckon by nights instead of days. — Ccesar, B. G. 6. 18. 



262 ATTILA. 

In Druid Gaul. Above they spread the spoils 

Of nations, Tyrian silks, and carpets rare 

From Persian loom, and banners waving bright, 

And Southern skins of lion and of pard, 

The tiger's varied fur, the ivory tusk 330 

From Barygaza, or the sacred flood 

That laves thy pagods, Palimbothra, brought, 

And tawny amber from the Arctic strand. 

Then last, as most acceptable, they pour'd 

The purple stream of death, and those whose hands, 335 

Luckless in war, now turn'd to servile use, 

Had dug the conqueror's bed, libation gave 

Of their heart's blood ; as when atonement dread 

The second Caesar unto Julius made, 

And three slain hecatombs, Perusia's strength, 340 

At the foul altar bled. Nor lack'd there spells 

Wrought by the ominous sisterhood, of power 

To scare the fearful spirits of the night, 

Which gather'd round his grave . Some thought they spied. 

Where, thro' the veil of gloom, the giant shape 345 

Of dark Mitraton # scowl'd, (while full of wrath 

Right opposite the Scythian angel stood 

Contending for his body) in such guise 

Majestic, as when whilom, by the side 

Of Israel's mighty lawgiver, he view'd 350 

The glory of his God ; and others thought 

The Prince of darkness and his fiendish crew, 

Sooth'd by the hellish rites, with wing outstretch'd 

Propitious hover'd o'er the bloody sod. 



* The Cabbalistic guardian angel of Moses, in whose spirit Attila was 
said to have come. 



book xii. 263 

Upon the summit of her funeral pyre 355 

Raised on a car, # in panoply of gold, 
Stood Hilda ; in her hand a sword, that shone 
Illumed by torch-light. O'er the seat and round 
Were tissues thrown, embroider'd by her art 
With mystic signs and figured tales of old, 360 

How Hedin battled with his ghastly sire, 
How f Helge rode on his pale horse by night, 
From Hades and the darksome reign of death, 
To his own tomb, (where the connubial couch 
His living widow spread) and there abode 365 

Till ruddy morning warn'd him to bestride 
His courser, ere the cock arouse his foes ; 
Nor those alone, but many a strange device 
Of Eastern cabbala, and Scandian Runes, 
And forms and characters of secret note 370 

From Egypt or Eleusis ; of this world 
The baneful wisdom, which the word of truth 
Confoundeth, by the simple voice of babes 
Perfecting praise. Her sword was temper'd steel 
O'erlaid with gold ; a blood-red serpent lay 375 

Deep graven on the blade ; a golden ring 
Adorn'd the hilt, o'er which a coiled snake 
Threw back its scaly tail ; within its folds, 

* See Edda, Helreid Brynliild. 
t In Helga Quida 1. 8 and 9, Helge sees nine Valkyries riding, of 
whom the most beautiful said to him, " I know that in Siger's island 
swords lie four less than fifty. Of those one is better than all, the 
bane of moon-shields, and overlaid with gold. A ring (or gold ?) 
is on the hilt; spirit (or courage, hugr) is in the middle, terror on 
the point, unto him who gets possession ; a snake painted with blood 
lies on the edge, and at the handle of slaughter an adder throws its 
tail." 



264 ATTILA. 

If rumour rightly tells, a spirit # lurk'd, 

And ever and anon from thence look'd forth 380 

Gleaming terrific, when the blade was drawn 

For battle. By her side f two vultures stood 

Chain'd to the car ; sobbing before her feet 

Reclined the offspring of her foster-sire, 

Amid resplendent heaps of hoarded spoils 385 

And patrimonial wealth. On either side, 

Upon the graduated pile beneath, 

Devoted souls ; upon her left five maids 

Chosen for beauty from her servile train 

In blooming prime ; their wavy locks were bound 390 

With fillets white, and belts of gold confined 

Their youthful bosoms frozen by despair ; 

Upon her right eight slaves of manly port 

Defying death, a worthier holocaust. 

Silent she stood, until the trump of death 395 

Made signal, and therewith she knew the Hun 

Was render'd to his grave. Then with firm hand 

The mail unclasping, thro' her side she press'd 

The fiendish sword. Crackling beneath, the pyre 

Gave note of conflagration, and the smoke 400 

Rose heavily, with volume dark and thick 

Involving the sad victims of her pride. 

Slowly it gather'd round her stately front, 

As o'er some snowy peak the wreathed mist, 

Or rising from the vale, or from the sea 405 

Roll'd landward, throws its fleecy mantle wide ; 

* In the magic sword of Skegg, a noble Icelander, a spirit, like a 
snake, lying hid in the handle, sometimes shewed itself. 

t For the particulars of her self-immolation, see the Scandinavian 
legends. 



book xii. 265 

And fearful, thro' the gloomy curtain, rose 

The wail of women in the throes of death, 

And stifled groans ; then, as the fire gave light 

Ascending, in her vaporous shroud, unscathed 410 

By the fierce element, was Hilda's form 

Seen dimly ; by her side a spectral shape 

Gigantic stood minaciously, and held 

The glamorous car, on which she thought to wing 

Her flight from gloomy Hades, to the isle 415 

Of Avalon, (where still the yearly wound 

Of him, who wielded once Excalibar, 

Is ever heal'd) hopeful to make * return 

After revolving ages, in fresh prime 

Regenerate thence, and fix her iron sway 420 

Upon this earth for evermore. From out 

The thickening veil of fume, tremendous came 

Reproachful voices, and contentious words 

Inhuman ; till by fervent heat consumed 

The pile in ashes sank, and sound was none, 425 

Save of the many, that in wonder gazed, 

Sheep of the sinful shepherd ; like that f flock 

To battle by the lying spirit led, 

Which scatter'd on the hills Micaiah saw 

At Ramoth-gilead, where the evil word 430 

Lured Israel's guilty monarch to his end; 

For sunder'd is the belt, that held their strength 

Collected : vanished is the fatal sword 



* Alanus (de insulis) states that king Arthur will return in the form 
of a grey-headed old man, mounted on a white horse. In like form 
Odin is said to have appeared, when he (really identical with Attila) 
assisted him to select the white horse (irana from the wild herd. 
t See 1 Kings xxii. 



266 ATTILA 

That led them, pour'd upon the fruitful world, 

Like those dread locusts # from the smoky pit 435 

Sent earthward, which the rapt Evangelist 

Dreaming in Patmos saw, with wings whose noise 

Was that of chariots rushing to the war. 

The vaunt of the destroyer is no more ; 

The haughty sound, that shook heaven's airy vault, 440 

Is swallow'd up in silence, and all these 

Have now no lord, but baffled and dispersed, 

Each to his nation and his home, shall go. 



See Revelation ix. 



FAREWELL. 

Reader, whoe'er hast travell'd to the goal 
Thro' this long chaunt unwearied, if my verse, 
Tuned to no trivial strain, has lent thee ought 
Of pleasure or of profit, o'er the work 
Wrought by the chaste artificer of song 5 

Bend kindly, yielding such small meed of praise 
Earn'd by high musing, as may send his name 
Not ill esteem'd upon the wings of Time 
Unto his children's children, when the sod 
Shall lie upon the hand, that gave it life, 10 

Calling the soul's unborn imaginings 
From thought's deep fountain ; like the glowing forms 
Of Eros and his brother, who uprose 
From their wet cradle at the wizard's voice. 
This mournful, o'er his neck the jetty locks 15 

With hyacinthine ringlets clustering, 
That blythe and golden as the God of day. 
Perchance I shall not walk with thee again 
Along the Muse's haunt, and we shall both 
Be number'd with the countless things, that lie 20 

O'ershadow'd by oblivion ; hearts, that beat 
High in the noontide of ambitious hopes, 
And forms of loveliest symmetry, that once 
Delighted the beholder, by the hand, 
Which deals just measure unto all that tread 25 

This changeful world, o'ertaken in their dream 
Of summer joy. Calm Reason throws a cloud 



268 FAREWELL. 

O'er the enchantment of aspiring thoughts, 

Which whisper of a life beyond the tomb 

Upon the lips of men, and tells how vain 30 

The shadow of such glory, nothing worth 

To him who hath his dwelling with the worm. 

But that Almighty will, which placed man here 

To labour in his calling, hath set deep 

Within his bosom an undying hope, 35 

An aspiration unto nobler ends 

Than he hath compass'd yet, a stirring thirst 

For praise beyond the term, that nature's law 

Has granted to his brief mortality. 

This, ever of the gloomy monitor 40 

Regardless, bids him peril much, to win 

The unsubstantial fame, which unto him 

Shall be as if not being ; a sweet strain 

Of soul-enrapturing music to the deaf, 

A scene of beauty and of light to eyes 45 

That lie in darkness, and by slumber seal'd, 

Without the sense of vision. Strange in sooth 

Appear the workings of the mind of man, 

Which goad him to his loss. The promised boon 

Of that stupendous glory, which shall be 50 

Hereafter, and survive the wreck of worlds 

Unto the end of Time, wants substance now 

To wrestle with his sense of present good ; 

That which is lighter than a transient gleam 

Of sunshine, or the shadow of a shade 55 

Reflected from a mirror, and, if gain'd, 

Can never be by any sense of his 

Enjoy'd or apprehended, the vain wish, 

To float upon the memory of men 



FAREWELL. 269 

After his term of being, oft becomes 60 

A master-passion, and for that one aim 

He barters all, that his Creator gave 

Of joy or solace in the vale of life, 

And that inheritance of perfect bliss 

Which might be his for ever. Then happy they, 65 

Who, in the airy building of a name, 

Have travell'd thro' the guiltless ways of peace 

Innocuous, and held the mind's calm eye 

Fix'd on a better star, than those vague fires, 

Which, fatuous, tole man to the abyss ! Time was, 70 

Nor will return, when poesy might rear 

A more perennial * monument than brass, 

Towering above the age-worn edifice, 

Where loath'd corruption saith unto the worm, 

" Thou art my sister." The famed Capitol 75 

No longer sees the silent virgin climb 

Its marble steps, nor does the pomp profane 

Of sacrificial pontiffs crowd its ways ; 

Yet still the chaplet blooms, wherewith the Muse 

Inwreathed the forehead of f Venusium's bard, 80 

Fragrant and fresh, while ages fling their dust 

Upon the crumbling domes, with which he claim'd 

Coeval glory. But the boast, that told 

Of sepulchres by magic verse uppiled, 

Which neither storms nor all-consuming Time 85 

Should bring to nothingness, would perish now 

* Exegi monumentum sere perennius. — Hor. 
t The birth-place of Horace, who boasted that he had raised by his 
poetry a monument more lasting than brass, which would endure so 
long as the pontiff with the silent virgin should ascend to the Capitol to 
do the accustomed heathen sacrifice. 



270 FAREWELL. 

Even in the utterance. I have * yet beheld 

But half an age, yet in that petty space 

Such giant forms of havoc and of change 

Have glided o'er the earth, that the mazed thought 90 

Dwells little on the past, but gazing forth, 

Like the Ebudan seer, with ravishment 

Strains after what shall be . The ear is cloy'd 

Unto satiety with honied strains 

That daily from the fount of Helicon, 95 

Flow murmuring ; and that which is to-day 

Inshrined upon the lip of praise, shall be 

To-morrow a tale told, a shadow pass'd 

Into those regions, where oblivion throws 

Over the bright creations of the mind 100 

A darkness as of death. Scared learning flies 

An age, which babbling with unnumber'd tongues 

In quest of some new wonder hurries on, 

And hath no retrospect. Enough for me, 

That this my tuneful labour, short howe'er 105 

Its term of glory, hath my solace been 

Thro' many a wintry hour, when icy chains 

Bound the frore champaign ; a sweet anodyne 

To inward cares, lulling the tremulous heart 

That throbs with high aspirings, and would fain 110 

Live unreproach'd upon the rolls of fame, 

Mindful of its Creator, who requires 

From each with usury the gifts He gave, 

And stirs by inborn thirst of good report 

Man to his noblest uses. To have walk'd 1 15 

No servile follower, nor vainly trick'd 

* These lines were written some years before their publication. 



FAREWELL. 271 

With meretricious gauds of modern song, 

Beneath Aonian umbrage never sere, 

Where Melesigenes and Maro stray'd, 

Where British Milton gave his country's lyre 120 

A voice from ancient days, hath been to me 

A charm illusive, a refreshing toil 

Year after year. My little barque, o'er which 

Long fashioning thy symmetry I hung, 

Now launch'd upon the ocean wide of Time, 125 

Whose winds are evil tongues, and passions roused 

Amidst the warring multitude its storms, 

Sore shall I miss thee ! like the child, first sent 

From the safe home, where fond parental cares 

Watch'd o'er his growing energies. Go forth 130 

Unto thy destinies, and fare unharm'd 

Adown the current, which may waft thee soon 

To that Lethean pool, where earthly toils 

Sink unregarded in forgetfulness ! 



END OF THE POEM. 



ERRATA. 




P. 6. for Atilla 


read Attila 


— 9. v. 242. — harem 


— haram 


— 12. v. 346. — chrystalline 


— crystalline 


— 20 & 32, notes — Revelations 


— Revelation 


— 35, note 3. — son. 


— son? 


— 71 & 73, notes — Revelations 


— Revelation 


— 115. v. 288. — harem 


— haram 



II. 



A T T I L A 



AND 



HIS PREDECESSORS 



HISTORICAL TREATISE. 



CONTENTS 



§ 1. Introduction. 

§ 2. Origin of the Huns ; fabulous account. 

§ 3. Language of the Huns uncertain. 

§ 4. Habits and manners of the Huns in the 4th Century. 

§ 5. Chinese accounts of the Huns. 

§ 6. Hunnish kingdom from 210 B. C. till the 4th Century. 

§ 7. Nations bordering on the Huns before they entered Europe. 

§ 8. Entrance of the Huns into Europe — Reign of Balamer — 
King Box. 

§ 9. Bela, Cheve, Cadica, kings of the Huns. 
§ 10. Mundiuc — Huldin — Radagais, 
§11. Charato. 
§ 12. Aetius. 
§ 13. Rhuas. 

§ 14. Rhuas and Octar — CEbarses. 
§15. Burgundians. 
§ 16. Exploits of Aetius. 

§ 17. Death of Rhuas — Attila (his accession). 
§ 18. Attila (his age). 

§ 19. Treaty of Margus — Mama and Atakam. 
§ 20. Princess Honoria — Sorosgi — Litorius. 
§ 21. Capture of Margus, Viminacium, Ratiaria, Sec. 
§ 22. Comet and pestilence in 441 — Defeat of Arnegisclus at the 

Chersonese — Peace concluded by Anatolius. 
§ 23. Resistance of the Azimunthians. 

§ 24. Sword of the War-God — Style and pretensions of Attila — 
Engaddi — Danes — Second Moses in Crete — St. Patric. 

§ 25. Murder of Bleda — Predicted duration of the Roman 
empire. 

T 2 



276 CONTENTS. 

§ 26. Attila overruns all Thrace — Arnegisclus slain in battle — 
Truce concluded — Attila chastises the Acatzires — Curi- 
dach. 

§ 27. Embassies to Constantinople to redemand the refugees. 

§ 28. Edecon sent to Constantinople with Orestes — Tampered 
with by Chrysaphius — Embassy of Maximin accom- 
panied by Prisons and Bigilas — Proceed to Naissus — 
Fugitives delivered up by Agintheus. 

§ 29. Cross the Danube, and reach the tents of Attila — Visited 
by Scottas and others — Ordered to return — Through the 
interference of Scottas admitted into the presence of 
Attila — Harsh reception of Bigilas, who is sent back 
with Eslas to Constantinople — The rest of the embassy 
detained till his return. 

§ 30. Proceed northward — Attila marries Eskam. 

§ 31. Storm, and village where dwelt a widow of Bleda — Meet 
the Western ambassadors — Account of the two Con- 
stants, and Silvan us the silversmith. 

§ 32. Situation of the residence of Attila. 

§ 33. Hrings of Avares or Huns which were destroyed by Pepin 
under Charlemain. 

§ 34. Observations of a Hun on the state of the empire. 

§ 35. Onegesius — Kreka — Buildings of the Huns — Extent of 
Attila's power in the North, extending to the confines 
of the Medes. 

§ 36. Banquet to which the ambassadors were invited by Attila. 

§ 37. Rekan — Constantius. 

§ 38. Berich accompanies the ambassadors on their return — 
Executions — Disputes. 

§ 39. Return of Bigilas — Seizure. 

§ 40. His son sent to Constantinople- 

§ 41. Mission of Nomus and Anatolius — Terms obtained from 
Attila. 

§ 42. Mission of Apollonius. 

§ 43. Death of Theodosius — Marcian — Honoria. 

§ 44. Views of Attila on Gaul — Court in Thuringia. 

^ 45. Eudoxius — Bagauda^ — Merov'eus— Alberon. 

§ 46. Merovingians — Kingdom of Cameracum. 



CONTENTS. 277 

§ 47. Valentinian excites Theodoric against Attila. 

§ 48. Attila advances against Gaul. 

§ 49. Aetius prepares to oppose him — Note concerning Danes. 

§ 50. Siege of Orleans. 

§ 51. Retreat of Attila to the Catalaunian plain. 

§ 52. A hermit declares him to be the Scourge of God — Sooth- 
sayers. 

§ 53. Battle of Chalons. 

§ 54. Retreat of the Visigoths. 

§ 55. Sacrifice to the Sword-God — Entrance into Troyes. 

§ 56. Eutropia — St. Ursula and the tale of the slaughtered virgins. 

§ 57. Return to Pannonia — Crow perches on Attila — He advances 
against Italy. 

§ 58. Enters Carnia. 

§ 59. Aquileia. 

§ 60. Siege — Construction of Hunnium. 

§ 61. Capture of Aquileia. 

§ 62. Further operatiens — Surrender of Ravenna — Marullus the 
Calabrian poet. 

§ 63. Florence — Brescia. 

§ 64. Embassy from Rome. 

§ 65. Honoria — Retreat of Attila. 

§ 66. Erroneous statement of Jornandes. 

§ 67. Death of Attila. 

§ 68. Particulars thereof — Nibelungenlied. 

§ 69. Attila identified with Odin. 

§ 70. Identified with Sigurd — Scandinavian legends — Fundinn 
Norregur, or Norwegian origins, a political forgery. 

§ 71. Result of a comparison of various traditions. 

§ 72. Funeral of Attila. 

§ 73. Attila identified with the king Arthur of romance. 

§ 74. Poem of the dark ages concerning Attila. 

§ 75. Later romances and allusions to the affairs of Attila. 

$ 76. Conclusion. 



ATTILA, 



HIS PREDECESSORS. 



If the extraordinary individual, who styled himself 
not unjustly the scourge of God and terror of the world, 
had never existed, the history of the Huns would have 
been very little more interesting to us at the present 
epoch, than that of the Gepidae, or Alans, or any of 
the chief nations that were assembled under his banner ; 
but the immensity of the exploits, and the still greater 
pretensions of that memorable warrior, render it a 
matter of interest to know the origins of his power, and 
the very beginnings from which his countrymen had 
arisen, to threaten the subjugation of the civilized 
world, and the extirpation of the Christian religion. 
There has probably existed, before or since the time of 
Attila, but one other potentate, who, in his brief career, 
passed like a meteor over Europe, building up an 
empire, that was maintained by his personal qualities, 
and crumbled to atoms the moment he was withdrawn 
from it, leaving, however, consequences of which it is 
difficult to calculate the extent or termination. One of 
the greatest losses that the history of Europe has sus- 



280 ATTILA, 

tained, is that of the eight books of the life of Attila, 
written in Greek by Priscus, who was his cotemporary 
and personally acquainted with him, and who, by the 
fragments that have been preserved to us, appears to 
have been most particular, candid, and entertaining, in 
his details. The loss is the more to be regretted, as it 
is certain that they did exist entire in the library of the 
Vatican after the restoration of literature, though it 
appears to have been ascertained by anxious research, 
that they are no longer to be found there ; and there 
seems reason to suspect, that they may have been pur- 
posely destroyed through the jealousy of the Church of 
Rome, lest their publication should bring to light any 
facts or circumstances, that might militate against its 
policy or doctrines ; when we consider the conspicuous 
part which was acted by the bishop of Rome, at the 
close of the Italian campaign of Attila, a period not long 
antecedent to the claim advanced by his successors to 
religious and political supremacy. As we are thus 
deprived of the great fountain of information, our 
materials relating to the events of some of the most 
important portions of his life, and especially the parti- 
culars of its termination, are lamentably deficient. 
Under these circumstances it will be necessary to com- 
pare the brief and conflicting notices which have de- 
scended to us, with the copious and varied details of 
the most rude and ancient romances of Europe, which, 
however involved in confusion, and discredited by fiction 
and anachronism, can scarcely be supposed to have been 
built upon no foundation. The little we know con- 
cerning the origin and early habits of the Huns, is 
chiefly derived from Chinese writers who were consulted 



AND HIS PREDECESSORS. -~- 

by Des Guignes, which may be core pared with the 
statements of ancient chroniclers, and, as far as re 
to the general manners of the Huns and other tribes 
that emerged from Asia, is most strikingly confirmed by 
Latin authority. 

§ 2. Two different accounts have been given by the 
old chroniclers of the origin of the Huns. The one, 
that they were descended from Magog the son of Japhet, 
brought forth by his wife Enech in Havilah, fifty-eight 
years after the deluge ; the other, that the two branches 
of the Huns and Magyars were derived from Hunor 
and Magor, elder sons of Xhnrod, who settled in the 
land of Havilah (meaning thereby Persia), and, having 
followed a deer to the banks of the Maeotis, obtained 
permission from Mmrod to settle there. By the d:.rr- 
ment of all writers, the Huns were Scythians, and if 
the Scythian tribes were descended and named from 
Cush * son of Ham, the Huns could not have been 
of the blood of Japhet. A singular fabulous -f origii 

* G. Pray in his Annales Hungarica?, says the very vt ■•-.- 
the Scythians were of the blood of Japhet, and could not the re fore 
have been descended from Ximrod. The reader is referred for the 
discussion of this point, to the first volume of Nimrod, p. 43, 4, «?c 5. 

t See Jornandes de reb. Get. c 24. Inchofer in his Apparatus ad 
Annal. Eccl. Hung, says that Priscus was of the same opinion concern- 
ing the origin of the Huns. Unless Inchofer had seen the lost work 
of Priscus, he must have misunderstood Jornandes, who quotes Priscus 
immediately after relating the tale, but not upon that point. S - - 
bertus Gemblacensis calls the spirits Fauni Ficarii, but in other respects 
he follows Jornandes. The women he calls Alruna?, which is nearer 
the Scandinavian form of the word. The Hungarian writers art 
much offended at this unseemly origin, and Pray writes acrimoniously 
against Jornandes, a bishop of the sixth century, for relating such a 
tale. A similar story was in vogue ameeraing the eld inhabit;-. - 



282 ATTILA, 

has been attributed to them. Filimer king of the Goths, 
and son of Gundaric the great, having issued from Scan- 
England, said to have sprung from fifty daughters of Dioclesian, " com- 
panying with fiends and filthy sprites." — Spencer Fai. Qu. c. 10. b. 2. 
st. 8. This fable concerning the Huns seems to be connected with the 
account given by Herodotus, (1. 4. 110 — 116.) of the origin of the Sau- 
romatsu. He states them to be descended from intercourse between 
some young Scythian men and a set of fugitive Amazons, who had 
established on their confines in the desert ; and that they spoke the 
Scythian language corrupted by passing through the teaching of the 
Amazons, from whom they had inherited the custom of permitting no 
maiden to marry till she had killed her man, all the Sauromatian old 
maids having been found deficient in that qualification. Herodotus 
says these Amazons were called Oiorpata by the Scythians, from oior a 
man, and pata to kill. The affinities of European languages may be 
traced from these words. Oior, with the French pronunciation of oi, 
is wor or vir Latin, a man, ace. virum ; varon, a man, Spanish ; baron, 
English. Pata ; beat, English ; battre, French ; matar, to kill, Spanish ; 
pat, a gentle blow, English ; a fatal blow, in vulgar speech : bat, a kick 
from a horse, dialect of the North of England ; bat, an instrument to 
strike with. Stephen. Forcatulus {de Gall. imp. et phil. I. 5. p. 331. 
Paris, 1589.) says, that when Aetius heard that Attila had led a great 
force into Gaul, he was in the habit of saying that Alastors or evil 
Genii must be exterminated by the sword, (ferro) alluding to the 
nature of shadows and demons, " who tremble at a drawn sword, as 
Psellus says," and to the known tale of the origin of the Huns, and he 
refers to the story about king Filimer. Forcatulus adds, that he should 
have thought that account of their descent a falsehood, if St. Augustin 
had not stated, that the old rustic Gods Sylvani and Fauni used to be 
very licentious and lie with women, and it was well ascertained that 
some demons, whom the Gauls called Dusii, did the same! Concerning 
Dusii see Wachter's glossary, where they are denominated incubi. 
Whence did Forcatulus derive his knowledge of the jest of Aetius? It 
has the appearance of an emanation from Priscus. I find on reference 
to Psellus de dsemonibus, that he states the demons to be of six kinds. 
1. Igneous, in the upper regions of the air. 2. Aereal. 3. Earthly. 
4. Aquatic and marine. 5. Subterraneous. 6. Darkling, inscrutable, 
bating God, and adverse to mankind. 



AND HIS PREDECESSORS. 283 

dinavia and occupied the Scythian territory, found cer- 
tain witches amongst his people, who were called in 
their language Aliorumnse or Alirunes, and he drove 
them far from his army into the desert, where they led 
a wandering life, and, uniting themselves with the un- 
clean spirits of the wilderness, produced a most ferocious 
offspring, which lurked at first amongst the marshes, a 
swarthy and slender race, of small stature, and scarcely 
endowed with the articulate voice of a human being. It 
rarely, if ever, happens that a very old tradition is en- 
tirely without meaning or foundation, and it may perhaps 
be drawn from this absurd fable, that the Huns were of 
mixed descent between the Goths and Tartars. 

§ 3. Great and formidable to all Europe as the Huns 
were in the reign of Attila, it is a matter of doubt what 
language they spoke. Eccard is quoted by Pray as 
arguing that they were Sclaves, and used the Sclavonic 
tongue, because Priscus only mentions two barbarian 
languages, as having been spoken in the camp of Attila, 
which were the Gothic and Hunnish ; and he observes, 
that if the Sclavonic and Hunnish had not been identical 
he would have mentioned the former also. Pray, anxious, 
as are all the Hungarian writers, to identify the ancient 
Huns with the * Avares of a later period, with the 

* Aimoin and Enginhart, writers of the reign of Charlemain, seem to 
be the authorities for the identity of the Avares of their time, and the 
Huns. " Avares sive Hunnos." Almoin, I. 2. c. 11. Theophylactus 
Simoeatta (I. I.e. 7. and 8 Hist. Mauritiana) says, " speaking of the 
Scythians who dwell towards Caucasus and the North, we will interrupt 
the course of the History, to relate what happened to those exceeding 
great nations. In this year the Chagawn celebrated by the Turks, sent 
ambassadors to the Emperor Maurice. He styled himself the moat 
chagawn, master (<*£<T7ror>/c) of seven races, and lord (cvptog) oi the 



284 ATTILA, 

Magyars, and their own countrymen, argues against 
this, asserting that the Sclaves did not enter Dalmatia 
and Illyria, till the time when the Avares were in Hun- 
climates of the habitable world (oiKovjxevrjg). This chagawn had con- 
quered the Ethnarch of the Abdeli, called Nephalites. Elated with his 
victory, having entered into confederacy with Stembischades, he reduced 
the nation of the Abari (or Avares), but these were not the Abari, 
barbarians, who dwell in Europe and in Pannonia, and had arrived 
there before the time of Maurice. Those barbarians falsely called them- 
selves Abari. Ooar or Var and Cheoonni (Oudp Kal Xtovvvi) were 
amongst the oldest exarchs of the real Abari, whence some of their 
tribes were called Ooar and Cheoonni. In the reign of Justinian, a 
small number of these two tribes flying, migrated into Europe, who 
afterwards vain-gloriously styled themselves Abari, and their chieftain 
chagawn. On this occasion the Sarselt, Unnuguri, Sabiri, and other 
Hunnish tribes with them, when they found Ooar and Cheoonni making 
an irruption into the territory they occupied, were in great consternation, 
believing the invaders to be the nation of Abari, and tried to conciliate 
their forbearance by ample gifts. The Ooar and Cheoonni finding their 
advantage in the mistake, encouraged the belief, and assumed the appel- 
lation of Abari. These false Abari are still divided into two tribes called 
Ooar and Cheoonni." Translated from the Greek. Simocatta was born 
in Egypt and wrote under Heraclius, between 612 and 640. The word 
Cheoonni is certainly very similar to Hun, which was written Chunus 
by the Romans, but although it is here said that a tribe of the Avares 
was called Cheoonni from an old exarch, and that a part of the falsely 
called Avares, who came into Hungary, were of that tribe, the passage 
does not insinuate that the Hunnish nations previously in Hungary, who 
were disturbed by them, had any affinity to them or to the Avares ; 
and the Huns were not called Cheoonni by the Greeks, but Oonikoi, and 
certainly he did not mean, that the tribe of which he was speaking, was 
the great Hunnish nation which had nearly subjugated Europe a hun- 
dred and fifty years before. If the Avares were a Tartar race, it seems 
most probable that the tribe amongst them, called Cheoonni, from an 
ancient exarch, was a part of those Huns, who, as we learn from the 
Chinese, had been vanquished by and became mingled with the Tartars 
long before ; and as they designedly adopted the name of Avares, they 
might have also adopted the language of their conquerors; but we have 



AND HIS PREDECESSORS. 285 

gary, about a century after the days of Attila, and that 
the Tartars, to whom he refers the Hunnish origin, are 
not Sclavonians. There were, however, certainly Sar- 

no certainty even what language was spoken by the Avares who were 
reduced by Charlemain. Concerning the Avares or Geougeni, see Des 
Guignes, t. 1. pt. 2. 1. 4. § 3. They are said to have been defeated by 
the Turci in 555 ; and to have approached or entered Europe 200,000 
in number. Pray says that Priscus was the first who mentioned the 
Avares, but that it is uncertain whether he meant the real or false 
Avares ; that they were generally reckoned Huns, but called Sclaves by 
Constantine Porphyrogenitus, and Goths by Thomas Archidiaconus, 
the Chronici Marulani, and Diaconus Hist. Misc. An anonymous writer 
(Script, rer. Hungar. Tom. 1. c. 2. p. 4.) says that the Hungarians, a 
people from Scythia, were so named from the camp (castro) Hunai, 
because having subdued the Sclaves they sojourned in Pannonia, whence 
the neighbouring nations called Aim son of Ugek, duke of Hungvar, 
(ducem de Hungvar) and his soldiers Hungvari. Those, who wish, as 
Pray, to identify the Hungarians with the Huns of Attila, content 
themselves with saying that this writer was in error, bit Jornandes tells 
us that the stronghold of Attila in Pannonia, was called Hunniwar, and 
that it was maintained as a fortification after his time, and it certainly 
was so in the time of Charlemain ; and it seems exceedingly probable 
that the assertion is correct, that the new occupiers of Pannonia were 
called Hungarians, not because they were Huns, but because they 
occupied and had their head-quarters in the ancient Hungvar. There 
exists a letter of bishop Evagrius addressed to Tutundus and Moymarus, 
chiefs of Hunnia, otherwise called Avaria, and of Moravia, concerning 
their conversion to Christianity, A.D. 826, and there does not appear to 
be any later mention of the Avares as an existing people. The old 
Hungarian writers, identifying the Hungarians with the Huns, pretend 
that Aim in the 9th century, was the son of Ugeck, the son of Ed, the 
son of Chaba, the son of Attila ; a space of above 400 years for four 
generations ! Arpad son of Aim, approached the Teiss in 889. The 
further attempts, to prove that the Hungarians were of the same origin 
as the Huns, are made by connecting them with the Tores, who arc 
asserted to be Huns also ; but the proofs are very vague. The defeat 
of the Avares by the Tares is mentioned by Menander and Simoeatta, 
as well as by the Chinese. 



286 ATTILA, 

matian nations under Attila, of which the Quadi * may 
be particularly mentioned, and the words of Ovidf 
distinguish the Sarmatian from the Gothic, as much as 
those of Priscus do the Hunnish language. But in 
truth Priscus does not say that only two languages were 
spoken, though he names the Gothic and Hunnish as 
prevalent, and perhaps as being only dialects of one 
tongue, for he nowhere asserts them to be radically 
distinct; and a brief examination of ancient evidence 
will perhaps lead us rather to consider it as a Teutonic 
dialect, than allied to the modern Hungarian. Priscus 
invariably uses the word Scythian, to include the Gothic 
nations with the Huns, and, if they were radically different 
in language as well as appearance, it is very difficult to 
understand how they should have been so classed under one 
denomination. He speaks also of their singing Scythian 
songs, which would convey no distinct meaning if the 
Scythians had two languages as widely different as the 
Gothic and Hungarian. In three other passages he men- 
tions the language of the Huns. He says that on the em- 
bassy, with which he was himself associated, Maximin 
took with him Rusticius, "who was skilled in the tongue 
" of the barbarians, and accompanied us into Scythia." 
Whenever he speaks of the Huns specially, he calls them 
Huns. He says of Zercon the buffoon, that, " mixing 

* " Quadi" Ammianus Marcellinus describes the Quadi and Sar- 
matoe as blended together, using very long spears, coats of mail made 
of polished horn imbricated like feathers, with linen coverings. They 
rode on geldings, that the neighing of horses after the mares might not 
betray their approach, being more accustomed to robbery than open 
warfare. Their horses were very swift and tractable, and they usually 
led one or two to relieve that on which they rode. — L. 17. c. 12. 
t Didici Gctiee Sarmaticeque loqui. Trist. 12. 52. 



AND HIS PREDECESSORS. 287 

" the tongue of the Huns and that of the Goths with that 
" of the Italians, he kept the whole court, except Attila, 
" in incessant laughter ;" concerning which it may be 
observed, that, if the Hunnish and Gothic were not 
merely dialects of one language, the jests of Zercon 
could have been intelligible to very few of Attila's 
soldiers, and could scarcely have kept the whole court 
in a roar of laughter. In the other passage he says, 
" The Scythians, being a mixed people, adhere to their 
" own barbarous tongue, either that of the Huns, or that 
" of the Goths, or even those who have intercourse with 
" the Romans, that of the Italians, but they do not 
" readily speak Greek, except the captives from Thrace 
" and the maritime part of Illyria." This is the sum of 
the information transmitted to us concerning their * lan- 
guage, which seems to point rather to kindred tongues, 
like those of the Danes and Swedes which are easily 
understood by either nation, than to two languages 
radically different. In the account given by Priscus of 
his progress through the north of Hungary with the 
embassy, he states that they were furnished instead of 
wine, with what was called by the natives meed, writing 
the word in Greek medos ; and as those natives were the 
very Huns of Attila, near his principal residence, it 
affords a strong reason for attributing to them a Teutonic 

* The title of the tomb of Cheve an ancient king of the Huns, Cheves- 
haza, as given by Nicolas Olaus, with an explanation that it means 
Cheve's house, comes very near to the old Teutonic form Cheveshus, 
and has the s of the Teutonic genitive. Priscus also speaks of the 
excessive emotion testified by the whole court of Attila at the recital of 
Scythian poetry which celebrated the victories of Attila, as if it was 
intelligble to all. Concerning the Teutonic word ring by which the 
Hunnish fortifications were named, see § 30. of this work. 



288 ATTILA, 

dialect, though the word kamos which he mentions for a 
sort of beer is not so easily traced. The name of 
Alirunes or Alrunae given to the mothers of the Huns, 
and stated by Jornandes in the first century after the 
death of Attila to have been the name used by the peo- 
ple amongst whom they originated, is decidedly a Teu- 
tonic word, which may be found in the Scandinavian 
Edda, written aulrunar. Jornandes tells us that the 
Huns called their fortified seat in Pannonia Hunniwar, 
which is indubitably Teutonic, the last syllable being the 
word which, according to the dialect, is called ware, ward, 
or guard, from which last form of the word our court is 
derived. The king, who led the Huns into Europe, is 
named by Jornandes, Balamber or Balamer, which is 
actually the same name as that of Walamir king of the 
Goths under Attila, whom Malchus calls Balamir. We 
know from the history of Menander that the river Volga 
was called Attila, or as the Greeks write it Atteelas, in 
German Ethel, in which form the name is connected with 
the Teutonic edel, noble ; and the name of king Attila 
in the oldest German is Etzel, in which form it is pos- 
sibly connected with the Teutonic steel, alluding to the 
sword-god, which with a similar deduction from the 
Greek chalybos, has been called chalybdicos, # chalib,f 
and exealibar.:}: The documents, which could clear up 

* 'Eyw 8e dpoirijg ayx 1 KeiVoyuai Trkdift XaXvfidiicy kvojSovti avvrt- 
Qpavafikvn. Lycophron 10C8. The same sword he had before called the 
three-fathered falchion of Candaor ; three-fathered, because it was the 
sword of Orion or Nimrod, referring to the mysterious triple parentage 
of Orion. For such transpositions as st see p. 303, Winithar. 

t Chalib was the Comanian sword of Georgius Cappadox. — Life of St. 
George. For the Cappadoeian sword see Dion Cassias and Strabo. 

\ The sword of Arthur, to which his life was attached. 



AND HIS PREDECESSORS. 289 

the point, are probably lost beyond all chance of re- 
covery, but it seems questionable whether the nationality 
of modern Hungarians has not induced them to claim a 
connexion of blood with the Huns of Attila, to which they 
are perhaps not entitled. Desericius in his voluminous 
work has exerted himself to demonstrate that the Huns 
had no affinity with the Alans, Goths, Gepidae, Vandals, 
and Lombards, and they were certainly a race differing 
in stature and colour from the Alans, which proves them 
to have been long distinct, though they may have 
branched out at a period later than the dispersion of 
mankind in the time of Peleg ; but they dwelt near to 
each other, and their habits and worship were precisely 
the same. The question above proposed is whether their 
language was a dialect of the general Teutonic tongue 
spoken by those nations, (perhaps even an admixture of 
that with some other language) or radically and entirely 
distinct like the modern Hungarian. The oldest account 
we have of the Scythians is given in detail by Herodotus, 
about 450 years before the birth of Christ; 380 years 
after Christ Ammianus Marcellinus described the Alans 
who were of the Gothic family, with manners exactly 
similar to those of the Huns, and the same sword-worship 
which had been described as used amongst the Scythians 
by the father of profane history; and in the following 
century we find Attila the Hun, obtaining great rever- 
ence by means of a like sanctified sword, and making 
the very Scythian sacrifices described by Herodotus, and 
the Huns and Goths still called promiscuously Scythians 
by the Greek writers. The Teutonic nations and the 
Huns had therefore during at least 900 years before the 
death of Attila been known under one common deno- 

u 



290 ATTILA, 

mination, and entertained the same habits and a similar 
religion ; and it will not easily be proved that their lan- 
guages had no affinity, by those who wish to establish the 
identity of the Huns and Hungarians. 

§ 4. The Hunnish nation, says Ammianus Marcellinus 
in the fourth century, little known by ancient records, 
and dwelling nigh the frozen ocean beyond the Maeotian 
marshes, exceeds every known degree of savageness. 
From their very infancy # their cheeks are gashed so 
deeply with steel, that the growth of the beard is impeded 
by scars ; they grow up, like eunuchs, without beards or 
manly beauty. The whole race have compact and firm 
limbs, and thick necks, a prodigiously square stature, 
like two-legged beasts or stumps coarsely shaped into 
human figures. They are so hardy, that they require 
neither fire, nor seasoned victuals, but live on the roots 
of wild plants, and the half-raw flesh of any sort of cattle, 
which they quickly warm by placing it under them on 



* Ammianus was perhaps mistaken in this respect, for it is known hy 
the testimony of many writers that they gashed their cheeks in grief and 
mourning, and it seems improbable that they should cicatrize their chil- 
dren in the same manner. That the Huns cut their faces in grief, see 
Jornandes de reb. Get. Agathias (lib. 5.) says concerning the Cutri- 
guri, a Hunnish tribe, " a great barbarian wailing was heard, for gash- 
" ing their cheeks with their daggers they uttered lamentations after 
" the fashion of their country." According to Menander (Hist. lib. 8.) 
Turxanthus prince of the Turci told the Romans, that since they had 
come to visit him in the days of his mourning for his father just deceased, 
it behoved them to gash their cheeks with their swords, and conform 
with the prevailing law in honour of the dead ; whereupon all his own 
people there present cut their faces, but it does not appear that the 
Romans were so polite as to accede to his suggestion. Sidonius Apol- 
linaris in Pan. ad Avitum mentions the same custom, Vulnere vel si quis 
plangit, &c. 



AND HIS PREDECESSORS. 291 

the backs of their horses. They never frequent any sort 
of buildings, which they look upon as set apart for the 
sepulchres of the dead, and, except in case of urgent 
necessity, they will not go under the shelter of a roof, 
and they think themselves insecure there, not having 
even a thatched cottage amongst them ; but, wandering 
in the woods from their very cradle, they are accus- 
tomed to endure frost, hunger, and thirst. They are 
clothed # with coverings made of linen and the skins of 
wood mice stitched together, nor have they any change 
of garment, or ever put off that which they wear till it is 
reduced to rags and drops off. They cover their heads 
with curved f fur caps ; their hairy legs are defended by 
goat skins, and their shoes are so ill fitted as to prevent 
their stepping freely, on which account they are not well 
qualified for infantry; but, almost growing to the backs 
of their horses which are hardy and ill-shaped, and often 
sitting upon them after the fashion % of a woman, they 
perform any thing they have to do on horseback. There 

* Jornandes says the Hunniguri are well known, because the trade in 
mouse-skins (under which name ermine and the like seem to be in- 
cluded) comes from them. Justin also quotes from Trogus, that the 
Scythians use no woollen garments, but skins of wild beasts and mice. 
Seneca (epist. 20.) says that the greater part of the Scythians are dressed 
in fox and mouse skins, which are soft to the touch aud impenetrable to 
the wind. 

+ Hieronymus in Epitaph. Nepot. speaking of the Huns, calls their 
head-dress a tiara. 

X Agathias (lib. 3.) says that Gubazen king of the Lazi fought sitting 
in that manner ; krvyxavt yap evqWaydqv 'ix u)V tu> node vnkp ti)v 
avxwa to& "nrirov. The feminine seat is not a modern refinement. 
Achilles Tatius (de am. Clit. et Leuc. 1. 1.) says, the damsel sat on the 
middle of the back of an ox, not astride, but mounted upon it with both 
feet on one side. 

u 2 



292 ATTTLA, 

they sit night and day, buy and sell, eat and drink, and 
leaning on the neck of the animal take their slumber, 
and even their deepest repose. They hold their councils 
on horseback. Without submitting to any strict royal 
authority, they follow the tumultuous guidance of their 
principal individuals, and act usually by a sudden im- 
pulse. When attacked they will sometimes stand to fight, 
but enter into battle drawn up in the figure of wedges, 
with a variety of frightful vociferations. Extremely 
light and sudden in their movements, they disperse pur- 
posely to take breath, and careering without any formed 
line they make vast slaughter of their enemies; but, 
owing to the rapidity of their manoeuvres, they seldom 
stop to attack a rampart, or hostile camp. At a distance 
they fight with missile weapons, most skilfully pointed 
with sharp bones. Near at hand they engage with the 
sword, without any regard for their own persons, and 
while the enemy is employed in parrying the attack, they 
entangle his limbs # with a noose in such a manner as to 
deprive him of the power of riding or resisting. None 
of them plough, or touch any agricultural instrument. 
They all ramble about like fugitives without any fixed 
place of abode with the waggons in which they live, in 
which their wives weave their dark clothing, cohabit 
with them, bring forth their children, and in which they 
rear the boys to the age of puberty. Faithless in truces, 
inconstant, animated by every new suggestion of hope, 

* The Huns are perhaps the only nation recorded in ancient times as 
having been skilled in throwing the noose, like the South Americans. 
Many other features in this picture bring the South American Indians 
to mind. The account however of the capture of Sarus by Ataulphus 
the Goth seems to imply that he was taken by throwing the noose. 



AND HIS PREDECESSORS. 293 

they give way to every furious incitement. They are as 
ignorant, as irrational animals, of the distinction between 
honesty and dishonesty, versatile and obscure in speech, 
influenced by no religious or superstitious fear, insatiably 
covetous of gold, so fluctuating and irritable, that they 
often fall off from their companions without any suffi- 
cient cause, and reconcile themselves again, without any 
steps having been taken to pacify them. Such were the 
Huns when they burst into Europe about the year 374 
after Christ, and such they had been from the earliest 
period of history. 

§ 5. After the confusion of tongues in Sennaar # 2247 
B. C. the Huns are said to have migrated into the 
mountains of Armenia and Georgia. Thence, emerging 
into the plain between the Tanais and Volga, they 
divided, part to the east, and part to the west. What 
became of those who travelled west does not appear, if 
the Huns are to be considered as distinct both from the 
Teutonic and Sclavonian races. We read in some writers 
of dark and white Huns ; the former being undoubtedly 
the Huns proper, and the latter some of the yellow 
haired tribes like the Alans, who dwelt in their vicinity 
with habits very similar. The Huns who travelled east- 
ward led a pastoral life, enclosed amongst the mountains, 
and had no intercourse with other nations, but perpetual 
warfare with the Chinese, from whom the only informa- 
tion concerning them is derived. The Chinese make 
mention of the Huns 2207 B. C. dwelling to the N. E. 
of China, feeding on the flesh of their flocks and dressed 
in skins. In their dealings with other people their 

* Des Guignes, torn. 1. pt. 2. lib. 1. 



294 ATTILA, 

affirmation held the place of an oath. They punished 
murder and theft, that is amongst themselves, with cer- 
tain death. They accustomed their children to hunt 
and use arms. In their earliest years they shot birds 
and # mice with arrows ; growing bigger they pursued 
hares and foxes. No one amongst them could be deemed 
a man, till he had slain an enemy, or was bold and 
skilful enough to do so. It w r as their custom to attack 
their enemies unexpectedly, and to fly as rapidly when it 
was expedient. The great speed of their horses faci- 
litated this mode of warfare, and the Chinese, who were 
accustomed to standing fight, could not pursue and 
vanquish them : and the Huns, if defeated, retired unto 
desert places, where the enemy would find it very grievous 
to follow them. They were quite illiterate ; their weapons 
were bows and arrows, and swords. They had more or 
fewer wives according to their means, and it was not 
unusual f for a son to marry his stepmother, or a brother 
the widow of his brother. The Hun who could rescue 
the body of a slain comrade from the enemy became 
X heir to all his property. They were anxious to make 

* Perhaps including the weazel tribe under that denomination, as well 
as rats. 

t Des Guignes says that there was no prohibition to marriage amongst 
the Huns on account of relationship. This is probably a misappre- 
hension. The cases here mentioned are not of incestuous union, but of 
the son inheriting the wives of his father, always excepting his own 
mother, and of the brother according to the Mosaic law raising up seed 
to his deceased brother. Indeed the account of the fatal loves of king 
Lieou-toung with the widow of his father, which is given by Des Guignes, 
contradicts the assertion. There is reason to apprehend that there was a 
difference between the wife proper who was queen amongst the Huns, 
Hid the subsidiary wives who were inherited as concubines. 
X Des Giugnes, torn. 2. p. lo. 



AND HIS PREDECESSORS. 295 

captives, whom they employed in tending their flocks. 
Thieves amongst other nations, they were faithful to 
each other. They lived in tents placed upon waggons. 
The ancient Huns adorned * their coffins with precious 
things, gold, silver, and jewels, according to the rank of 
the deceased, but they erected no tombs. Many ser- 
vants and concubines followed the body at the funeral, 
and served it as if living ; troops of fighting men 
accompanied it, and at the full moon they began com- 
bats which lasted till the change. Then they cut off 
the heads of many prisoners, and each of the fighting 
men was rewarded with a measure of wine made from 
sour milk. 

§ 6. Teuman, who reigned after the death of Chi- 
Hoam-tio, 210 years before Christ, over the Huns 
between the Irtish on the west, and the Amur, which 
rises in the mountains to the east of lake Baikal, and 
flows into the sea opposite Kamtchatka, pressed the 
Chinese on his southern confines, which appears to be 
the earliest specific action of the Huns upon record. 
He was killed by his son Mete, who took the title of 
Tanjoo or Tanju, meaning son of heaven. Whatever be 
the etymology of the name Tanju, coming to us through 
the Chinese historians, we cannot rely upon it as being a 
Hunnish title expressed in the Hunnish language. Some 
of the names they give of the ancient Hunnish poten- 
tates are so decidedly and radically different from the 
names borne by Hunnish princes in Europe, that they 
must be looked upon as Chinese or Tartar versions of 
the names, rather than as the very appellations by which 

* Des Guignes, torn. 2. p, '20, 7. 



296 ATTILA, 

those persons were distinguished amongst their country- 
men, unless their language underwent a complete change 
in the course of a few centuries after this period. It is 
certainly possible that the Huns, if they had originally 
some affinity to the Tartars, as their personal appearance 
seems to indicate, having after centuries of confliction 
with other Tartar races, been expelled by them from their 
seats, and having in their turn subdued their Gothic 
neighbours, may have gradually renounced much of the 
language of their invaders and adopted in great part the 
speech of the more humanized people who by conquest 
had become associated with them. The abode of the 
Tanjoos was in the mountains of Tartary. On the first 
moon of the year the grandees of the empire or principal 
officers, each of whom commanded ten thousand men, 
assembled to hold a general council at the court of 
the Tanjoo, which ended with a solemn sacrifice. At the 
fifth moon they met in another place, and sacrificed to 
Heaven, and Earth, and the Manes of their ancestors. 
In the autumn they assembled at a third place to num- 
ber the people and cattle. The Tanjoo every day pro- 
ceeded into the open plain to worship the sun, and every 
evening in like manner adored the moon. The title 
used by the Tanjoo, when he wrote to the emperor of 
China, was, * the great Tanjoo of the Huns, engendered 
by Heaven and Earth, established by the sun and moon. 
The tent of the Tanjoo was on the left hand, as the most 
honourable place amongst the Huns, and it faced to the 
west. We know from Priscus that, when he visited the 
court of Attila, the seats on his right hand were con- 

* l)cs Guignes, torn. 2. p. 37. 



AND HIS PREDECESSORS. 297 

sidered the most honourable, and those on his left of 
secondary consideration; by which it appears that even 
in their highest ceremonials the Huns of his time had 
departed from their ancient custom, and adopted that 
which prevailed amongst the Goths. Mete was a suc- 
cessful prince, and extended the limits of his kingdom. 
In the year 162 B. C. the Huns vanquished the people 
called Yue-chi, settled along the Gihon, who were after- 
wards called Jeta or Yetan, and were identical with the 
Getae. These adored Buddha, and carried the worship 
of Woden, who is the same Deity, into Europe; and, 
being of the Gothic race, they perhaps in some measure 
engrafted their habits and language on those of their 
ferocious conquerors. The empire of the Tanjoos having 
gradually increased, and having been maintained by 
frequent contests with various success against the Chinese, 
began to decline about the time of the birth of Christ, 
and in A. D. 93 it was entirely overthrown, the Tanjoo 
being defeated in battle, taken, and beheaded. The 
Sien-pi Tartars occupied their territory, and many of the 
Huns mingling with them took the name of Sien-pi. 
The rest migrated westward into the country of the 
Baschkirs. This empire of the Huns, who are not men- 
tioned by the Chinese as being a Tartar race, is said to 
have subsisted, from 1230 years before, till 93 years 
after the birth of our Saviour, but the succession of 
Tanjoos is only known since 210 B. C. In 109 the Huns 
occupied Bucharia, and the country between the Gihon 
or Oxus, and the Irtish. In 120 they defeated the Iguri 
to the south, and killed the Chinese general who led 
them. In 134 they were themselves defeated by the 
Iguri, and in 151 they were driven further west by the 



298 ATTILA, 

Sien-pis. In 310 * we are told that, Lieou-toung king 
of the Huns having fallen in love with the widow of his 
father, she answered his passion, but was so bitterly 
reproached by her own son, that she died of vexation. 
This circumstance, transmitted to us amongst the scanty 
records of Hunnish transactions, militates directly against 
the accusation made against them by some modern 
writers of utter indifference concerning all incestuous 
connections. It seems that the queen, mother of the 
heir to the throne, being dead, the king had taken to his 
throne another wife who had thereupon the rights of 
queen, and was not inheritable like the numerous wives 
of secondary condition who replenished the haram. Her 
submitting to the passion of her stepson was therefore 
probably regarded not only as an improper connection, 
but as a degradation from the rank and station she occu- 
pied as widow of the king. It is not improbable that 
the first wife enjoyed the rights of queen, on whose death 
the lady next espoused might succeed to her privileges ; 
but we have no certainty that the wife, who was to have 
especial rights, and whose issue were to inherit, may not 
have been selected by the choice of her husband from 
the multitude of his wives. In 316 f Lieou-yao king of 
the Huns took prisoner a general of the Tsin Tartars, 
and invited him to a feast. On receiving the royal 
invitation, the captive warrior answered that he was so 
grieved by the disasters of his country, that he would 
rather die than survive them. Thereupon he was imme- 
diately accommodated with a sword and destroyed him- 
self. Having failed in his first gracious intentions towards 



* Des Guigncs, torn. 2. p. 158. t lb. p. J 79. 



AND HIS PREDECESSORS. 299 

his prisoner, the monarch next turned his attention to 

the widow of the Tartar, who had also fallen into his 

hands, and was very beautiful, and he proposed to marry 

her: but the lady rejected his kindness with the same 

Spartan repugnance as her husband, whom she declared 

herself unwilling to outlive. The Hunnish monarch was 

equally scrupulous of thwarting her inclinations, and he 

was reduced to the gratification of burying them both 

in the most pompous manner. In 318 the Topa Tartars 

gained possession of the country east of the Irtish. At 

this period the Tanjoo had his principal abode in the 

land of the Baschkirs, but his territory extended east to 

the Hi, and stretched westward to the Caspian. The 

Sien-pis confined them on the east, and the Topas 

driving the Sien-pis on the Huns, forced the latter 

further westward. On the south and south-west they 

were stopped by the Persians. From about the birth of 

Christ to the time of Valentinian the first (A.D. 364) the 

Alans had inhabited the lands between the Volga and 

the Tanais. 

§ 7. Ammianus Marcellinus, who died soon after the 
Huns entered Europe, states that the Alans occupied in 
his time the immeasurable and uncultivated wastes of 
the Scythians beyond the Tanais, taking their name from 
that of a * mountain. The Neuri inhabited the midland 
parts near some abrupt hills, which were exposed to the 
north wind and severe frost. Next to them dwelt the 
Budini, and the Geloni, a warlike people who flayed 
their slain enemies, and made coverings of the human 



* 'AXavbg opog 'Eapnariag, a<p' oi) to tOvog oi 'AXavoi toiKtv dvoftd- 
'CtaSrat. Eustathius in Dionvs. 



300 ATT1LA, 

skins for themselves and their horses. The Agathyrsi 
bordered on them, who dyed both their bodies and their 
hair with blue spots; the lower classes with few and 
small marks, the nobles with thicker spots more deeply 
stained. The Melanchamae and Anthropophagi were 
said to wander on the skirts of these nations, devouring 
their captives, and a large tract reaching to the north- 
east towards the Chinese was understood to be left 
unoccupied by the withdrawal of various tribes from the 
vicinity of those ferocious marauders. The Alans * had 
spread themselves very widely towards the east, where 
they had many populous tribes, who reached even to the 
banks of the Ganges. Like the Huns they had neither 
plough, nor cottage; they lived on flesh and milk, in 
waggons with curved coverings of bark. When they 
arrived at a grassy district, they arranged their waggons 
in a circle, and as soon as the grass was consumed, they 
shifted their quarters. The plains which they frequented 
were very productive of grass, and interspersed with 
tracts that bore apples or other fruit, which they con- 
sumed when occasion required. Their tender years were 
passed in the waggons, but they were early habituated to 
ride, and esteemed it disgraceful to walk, and were all 
by instruction skilful and expert warriors. They were 
universally tall and well made, with yellowish hair, and 
remarkable by their eyes, in which ferocity was tem- 
pered with a more pleasing expression; swift in their 
movements, lightly armed, and much like the Huns in 
every thing, but more polished in their dress and mode 
of living, making inroads both to hunt and plunder, as 

* Ammianus Marcellinus. 



AND HIS PREDECESSORS. 301 

far as the Cimmerian Bosporus, and into Armenia and 
Media. Perils and warfare were their delight; the 
slaughter of a man their highest boast ; and they reviled 
with bitterness those who lived to old age or died by 
accidents, esteeming it blessed to fall in battle. They 
fastened the hairy scalps of their enemies to their horses 
for trappings and ornament. They erected no temples, 
but planted a naked sword with barbarous rites in the 
ground, and worshipped it as the protector of the dis- 
trict round which they had arranged their waggons. 
They had a singular mode of divining by collecting 
together a number of straight twigs, and after a- time 
separating them again with some sort of incantation. 
Slavery was unknown amongst them; and the whole 
nation was considered to be of noble blood. Their 
judges were chosen on account of the prowess they had 
shewn in warfare. 

§ 8. Upon these nations the Huns were driven by the 
inroads of the Tartars, who continued to force them 
towards the west. In the interval between the years 
318 and 374, advancing northward of the Caspian, 
they subdued the Alans, associating numbers of them 
with themselves, and forcing the rest to take refuge in 
Europe. In 374 they crossed the Meeotian swamp, or 
at least the river Tanais, into Europe. They had long 
considered the marshes to be an impenetrable girdle, 
till one of their nation, named Baudetes, having adven- 
tured*" more than usual in pursuit of a stag, succeeded in 
penetrating through them, and on his return communi- 

* Sozomen says they followed a cow which was driven hy a gadfly, 
and that the herdsmen, who crossed the swamp, reported the land 
beyond to be very fertile. 



302 ATTILA, 

cated the important intelligence to his countrymen. 
Bishop Jornandes # says that the stag led on the 
hunters by occasionally stopping to entice them, till it 
had conducted them into European Scythia, which he 
verily believes the foul spirits from whom they were 
descended devised out of enmity to its inhabitants. The 
Huns profited immediately by the discovery of this 
passage, which opened to them a new world, and, whether 
they really crossed the Mseotis stagnant and choked 
with reeds or the Tanais higher up,f they soon pushed 
their victorious arms to the banks of the Danube. They 
immediately attacked and reduced the Alipzuri and 
several other tribes, not omitting to sacrifice J a due pro- 
portion of the first captives they made, according to the 
Scythian custom, to the Sword-God whom they wor- 
shipped. The hideous appearance of their swarthy and 
cicatrized faces, their short, stout, and erect figures, the 
swiftness of their steeds, and the skill of their archers, 
spread dismay on all sides, and they came like a hurri- 
cane upon the several nations who were peaceably de- 
pasturing the European banks of the Tanais. The 
Alcidzuri, Itamari, Tuncassi, and Boisci, were subdued 



* De reb. Get. c. 24. Jornandes does not name the hunters, and a 
confusion has been made between Baudetes and the king Balamer. 

t Des Guignes supposes them to have passed the Meeotis in 376, 
while the emperor Valens was fighting the Isauri in Lycia and Pam- 
phylia ; but according to the account of the cotemporary Ammianus, 
other nations had been subdued by them in Europe before they at- 
tacked the Goths, which was in 376. Erasmus Froelich places their 
passage in 374, which year they spent in reducing the Alipzuri and 
other tribes, and in 375 they beat the European Alans. 

t Jornandes says they sacrificed the first captives they made to 
Victory. 



AND HIS PREDECESSORS. 303 

on the first inroad ; and the following season was fatal 
to the liberty of the European Alans, excepting such as 
preferred to migrate westward, and seek the protection 
or extort the toleration of the Romans. Every conflict 
was a source of increased power to the Huns, who com- 
pelled the nations they subdued to join with them in 
further invasions, and with the sword of the Alans, 
united to their own, they now attacked the Goths. 
Ermanric was at that time sovereign of the Goths, a 
man of very advanced # years, who was then lingering 
under the effects of a wound received from Sarus and 
Animius, brothers of Sanielh or Sanilda, whom he had 
caused to be torn asunder by wild horses, to avenge 
himself on her husband, a chieftain of the Roxolani, 
who had revolted from him. The conjuncture was 
favourable to the invaders, and their king f Balamer 
attacked the broad and fertile lands of Ermanric, who 
after vainly attempting to defend them, put an end to 
his own life. The Ostrogoths were subdued, having 
been previously weakened by the secession of the Visi- 
goths, who had applied to the Roman emperor Valens 
to give them a part of Thrace or Mcesia, south of the 
Danube, preferring a nominal dependance on the 
Romans, to the heavier yoke of the Hunnish invaders. 
The request was granted, and they were baptized into 
the creed of Valens, who was an Arian. Ermanric 
having perished, the Ostrogoths remained subject to the 
Huns, under the administration of WinitharJ or Withi- 

* Upwards of a hundred years old. t Ammianus Marcellinus. 
f Jornandes and Sigebertus call him Winitharius. Ammianus names 
him Withimerus, which is evidently the same name as Widemir, one of 
the Gothic kings under Attila, and probably the right name. 



304 ATTILA, 

mir of the family of the Amali, who retained the insig- 
nia of royalty. The * Gepidae were reduced under 
subjection to the Huns at the same period, and so rapid 
was their progress, that, within two years after crossing 
the Maeotis, they wrested the Pannoniasf from the 
Romans, either by force of arms, or by negociation. 
In 378 Fritigern, king of those Goths, who had inun- 
dated Thrace, being irritated by Lupicinus and Maxi- 
mus, and pressed by famine, made war upon the 
Romans. He was assisted by the Huns and Alans 
whomj he subsidized, and many actions took place with 
various success. Valens, alarmed at their progress, 
made a hasty peace with the Persians, and returned 
suddenly from Antioch to Constantinople. Gratian 
advanced with a considerable force to form a junction 
with the army of Valens, but the latter, confident of 
victory, and fearful of losing, or of sharing with Gratian, 
the lustre of that success which he anticipated, rashly 
attacked the Goths and their allies at the twelfth mile- 
stone from Adrianople near Perinthus. The Armenian 



* Procopius de bell. Vand. says that the Goths, Vandals, Visigoths, 
and Gepides were conspicuous amongst the Gothic tribes in rank and 
number. Sidonius Apollinaris uses the name Gepida with the second 
syllable short, and the accent consequently on the first. Procopius calls 
them Gepaides, with a circumflex on the second syllable, as if the name 
signified sons of earth. 

t Marcellinus Chron. A.D. 427, says Hippius and Ardaburius being 
consuls, the Pannonias, which had been held fifty years by the Huns, 
were recovered by the Romans. Callesius in his Annates Austria, I. 2. 
p. 87. expresses a doubt whether they were not obtained by the per- 
mission of Gratian and Valentinian. According to Sigonius they assisted 
the Goths against Valens, and occupied the Pannonias in concert with 
their allies. % Ammianus Marcellinus, lib. 31. c. 16. 



AND HIS PREDECESSORS. 305 

cavalry were routed by the first charge of the Goths, 
and left the infantry completely exposed to the enemy. 
The attack of the horse was supported by a shower of 
arrows, in the use of which the Huns were particularly 
skilful, and the Roman infantry was completely routed 
and cut to pieces by the swords and billhooks of the 
barbarians. Valens # took refuge in a house, where he 
was burnt alive by his pursuers, a practice not uncom- 
mon amongst the Scandinavian nations. Gratian, re- 
ceiving intelligence of this disaster, immediately recalled 
from Spain Theodosius, who in the following year re- 
paired the falling fortunes of Rome, and, both by suc- 
cessful conflicts and by conciliatory offers and presents, f 
put an end to the war. The pacification was however 
of short duration, and in 380 Gratian, being molested 
by the Huns, obtained the assistance of the Goths % 

There is an odd tale related by Ammianus Marcellinus, Socrates, 
Zonaras, and Georgius Cedrenus, Hist. Compend. p. 225, with some vari- 
ation in the words of the verses, that in pulling down an old wall of 
Chalcedon, a square stone was found in the middle with eight Greek 
hexameters inscribed thereon, prophesying an irruption of barbarians 
simultaneous with the better supply of Constantinople with water, which 
was afterwards effected by Valens. In the Florentine MS. of A. Mar- 
cellinus the barbarians are termed in the verses Hunnish tribes, but 
there only ; a variation made to suit the event. 

t For the account of these transactions see Orosius, lib. 7. c. 33, and 
34. Ammianus, lib. 31. c. 16. P. Diaconus, lib. xi. Zonaras, Ann. 1. 
xiii. Jornandes de reb. Get. and de regni Succ. Prosp. Aquit. Adon. 
Chron. A.D. 379. Sozomen. 1. 4. 

\ Whether these were Visigoths, or whether Winithar assisted the 
Romans at this period is not clear. Sigebertus in Chron. says Ostro- 
gothis in patrio solo remorantibus sub Hunnorum dominio prseerat 
Winitharius. — Eis ab hoc anno usque ad mortem Attilse per annos plus 
minus octoginta praefuerunt reguli gentis suae. Jornandes says, Wini- 
thario tamen Amalo principatus sui insignia rctinentc. — De reb. Get. e. -28. 

X 



306 ATT1LA, 

whom he took into his service. It was probably at this 
time, that Balamer king of the Huns violated the 
treaties he had made with the Romans, and laid waste 
many towns and much of their territory with his armies, 
stating that his subjects were in want of the necessaries* 
of life. The Romans sent an embassy to him, and 
promised to pay him nineteen pounds weight of gold 
annually, on condition of his abstaining from a renewal 
of such incursions. Whether the Ostrogoths had taken 
part with the Romans or not in 380, Winithar soon after 
attempted to throw off the Hunnish yoke, and his efforts 
were eminently successful. In the first encounter he 
captured a Hunnish king called f Box, together with his 
sons, and seventy men of distinction, all of whom he 
crucified, to terrify the rest of their countrymen. 
Nothing else is known concerning this Hunnish prince, 
but it seems that from the time of the invasion of 
Europe in 374 till the murder of Bleda by his brother 
Attila, the Huns were never governed by a sole king. 
For a short time Winithar the Goth reigned inde- 
pendent; Balamer, with the assistance of Sigismund 
the son of Hunnimund the Ostrogoth, who continued 
faithful to the Huns, attacked him, but was discomfited 
in two successive engagements. In the third battle on 
the banks of the river Erac, Balamer killed him, having 

* Priscus, p£. 2. c. 9. Bounce 1829. p. 217. without any date to the 
transaction. Pray Ann. Hung, refers it to A.D. 380. See also P. Mart. 
Szentivanyi e Soc. Jes. Chron. Hung. A. D. 380. The compiler of the 
index to Priscus, &c. in the Byzantine Historians, 1829, has referred 
these circumstances erroneously to Walamir the Ostrogoth under Attila. 
Priscus calls him a Scythian, by which name he always designates the 
Hunno-Gothic empire. 

t Jornandes de reb. Get. c. 48. He uses the name Box undeclined. 



AND HIS PREDECESSORS. 307 

wounded him surreptitiously in the head with an arrow, 
as they were approaching to each other. The defeat of 
his partisans was complete. Balamer married his grand- 
daughter Waladamarea, and possessed the whole empire, 
a Gothic prince however ruling over the Ostrogoths 
under the authority* of the Huns. Hunnimund the son 
of Ermanric succeeded to Winithar, and fought success- 
fully against the Suevi. His son Thorismond reigned 
after htm, and in the second year after his accession 
gained a great victory over the Gepidae, but was killed 
by the fall of his horse. The Goths greatly lamented 
him, and remained forty years after his death without a 
king, Berismund his son having followed the Visigoths 
into the west to avoid the Hunnish ascendancy. Bala- 
mer died in 386, soon after his marriage, probably 
leaving no children, and it is not known who immediately 
succeeded him. 

§ 9. The first king mentioned by the Roman writers 
after this period is Huldin, but nothing is detailed con- 
cerning him before the year 400. It seems probable 
that the three kings Bela, Cheve, and Cadica, named 
by the Hungarians as having reigned simultaneously, 
belong to the reign of Balamer, and perhaps Bela was 
the real name of the king who was styled by the Romans 
Balamerus. Under them was said to have been fought 
a great battle at a place called f Potentiana, which from 



* Jornandes says, quamvis Hunnorum consilio. 
t No such place as Potentiana is mentioned by Strabo, Ptolemy, or 
the Peutingerian tables which were made in the reign of Theodosius the 
great. Timon (Imag. ant. Hung.) thinks there never was such a place. 
Desericius says it should have been printed Mogentiana, Mentz, which 
is an utter absurdity, the battle having taken place close to the Danube. 

x2 



308 ATTILA, 

its circumstances seems referable to the period when the 
Huns first occupied Pannonia, seven or eight years 
before the death of Balamer. Bela, Cheve, and Cadica, 
pitched their camp upon the Teiss. Maternus, being 
at that time prsefect of Pannonia, administered the 
affairs of Dalmatia, Mysia, Achsea, Thrace, and Mace- 
donia. He solicited the aid of Detricus (Dietric or 
Theodoric), who then ruled over a part of Germany, 
and having collected a great miscellaneous force to resist 
the common enemy, they encamped at Zaazhalon in 
Pannonia, not far from the southern bank of the 
Danube, and remained posted near Potentiana and 
# Thethis. The Huns crossed the Danube below the 
site of Buda, surprised the allied army in the night, and 
routed them with great slaughter, and encamped in the 
vale of Tharnok. There the Huns were attacked in 
their turn, when the allies had rallied their scattered 

The Jesuit Gregorius Hidius (de celebribus urbibus Pannonia, Tyrnav. 
1701) places it not far from Buda, " ubi hodie pagus Adonyzus." It 
must have been near Buda, if the Huns crossed the river at Sicambria 
to surprise the Romans. Belius doubts the battle ever having taken 
place. Pray (Annal. Hungar.) refers the event to a period subsequent 
to the death of Attila, because Lazius relates the battle from a frag- 
ment of an old German annalist, but calls Detricus " Dietrich von Bern 
der do ein Rbmische kiinig was und hersehet in den landen," identifying 
him with Theodoric king of Italy, who was born after the death of 
Attila ; but the confusion of Theodoric afterwards king of Italy with a 
Theodoric who is said to have acted under Attila is general in all the 
old Scandinavian and German legends, and should be disregarded. 
Much more authentic and distinct accounts exist of what occurred after 
the death of Attila than of the events of this period, and there is no 
trace of any such kings after Attila. In truth it is certain that the Huns 
were not commanded by them in the days of Theodoric king of Italy. 

* Hoffman makes Potentiana identical with Theten in the German, 
Adam in Hungarian, two miles from Buda. 






AND HIS PREDECESSORS. 309 

forces, and after a severe contest the Huns were com- 
pelled in the evening to recross the Danube and return 
to their former position, but the victorious army was too 
much weakened to pursue them, and, fearful of a fresh 
attack, retired to Tulna, a town of Austria in the neigh- 
bourhood of * Vienna. It seems extremely improbable 
that a narrative so circumstantial and apparently impar- 
tial, though discredited by some modern writers, should 
be entirely fabulous, and the persons mentioned in it 
fictitious. It is evident, that it must be referred to the 
period when the Goths and Romans were acting together, 
that is the year 380, when, according to the Latin 
writers, the Goths asked the assistance of Gratian against 
the Huns, and when, according to Priscus, Balamer 
violated the treaties and laid waste much of the Roman 
territory; Balamer (perhaps identical with Bela) being 
the chief sovereign, Box, Cheve, and Cadica, inferior 
kings over portions of the Huns. 

§ 10. To Balamer probably succeeded immediately 
Mundiuc,f the father of i\ttila, but nothing is known of 

* Such is the account given by Nicolas Olaus, and to the like effect 
is the statement of other Hungarian writers. He says that the Huns 
lost 125,000 men, amongst whom was Cheve ; the allies 210,000, which 
is probably a great exaggeration. Abraham Bakschay, in his Chrono- 
logy of the kings of Hungary, (apud Bonfinium) says that Attila was 
buried by the marble column called Kaiazo, where Bela, Cheve, and 
Cadica lay entombed. Nicolas Olaus calls it Cheveshaza, and says that 
it means Cheve's house. He adds to the account above given, that the 
Huns afterwards attacked and defeated the Romans at Tulna, where 
Maternus was killed, and Detricus severely wounded, but 40,000 Huns 
with their three kings Bela, Cheve, and Cadica fell in the battle. 

t Callimachus says that the Huns subdued the Goths with difficulty, 
and that in this war, their king Velamber (the same as Balamer else- 
where called Balamber) died, and was succeeded by Mundruth, othei "wise 



310 ATTILA, 

the particular actions of his life, and he is never named 
as concerned either with or against the Romans, in any 
military operations, In 388 the Huns were employed 
by Gratian * against the Juthungi in Bavaria, and des- 
tined to act against Maximus in Gaul. In 394 f they 
sent auxiliaries to Theodosius mixed with Alans and 
Goths under Gaines, Saules, and Bacurius. In 397 it 
seems that Theotimus, bishop of Tomi or Tomiswar in 
Bulgaria, converted some Huns to J Christianity, and it 
is not improbable that these converts were the persons 
whom Rhuas and Attila redemanded and crucified. 
From about the year 400 till 411 § Huldin commanded 
the Huns in immediate contact with the empire, but we 
have no reason for supposing him to have been sole 

tailed Mazuch. Calanus also says that he succeeded Balamer, calling 
him variously Mandluch and Madluch. The Hungarian chronicles call 
him Bendekutz, Bonfinius Mundizicus, Nicephoras Numidius, Theo- 
phanes Omnudius, Jornandes Mundzuccus. Priscus, who visited the 
court of Attila, and is therefore paramount authority, names him Mun- 
diuch, Mvvdlovxog. It is here again observable that this name appears 
to be Teutonic, and exactly analogous to that of the Burgundian king 
Gundiuc, being a compound of Mun the moon, and diuch conqueror. 
Gioca is to conquer in Anglo-saxon. Yoke Anglice, jugum Latine, are 
from the same root. The name of Giuka king of Burgundy is this word 
simply, Gun-diuc is the same compounded. Mun-dzuc as he is named 
by Jornandes, agrees with the appellation given by Priscus. Bendekutz 
is perhaps a translation of the name, bendis being said to mean the 
moon in the tongue of the Thracians. See Strabo. 

* St. Ambrose, who upbraids him for using the sworcl of the Huns. 
t Sigonius, lib. 9. 

X Sozomen ; Orosius ; and Hieronimus who says, Hunni dicunt psal- 
tcrium. 

§ Belius in his notes to Juvencus Calanus, says that Mundiue asso- 
ciated Huldin to his throne, and Valesius (Iter. Franc. I. 4.) adopts 
the same opinion. 



AND HIS PREDECESSORS. 311 

monarch of the Hunnish nation. In 400 he killed 
Gaines, and sent his head to Arcadius. In conjunction 
with Sarus who was king over a portion of the # Goths, 
Huldin and his Huns afforded assistance to Rome in 
406, when Radagais had invaded Italy. Radagais f is 
said to have been the most savage of all the barbarian 
monarchs. So strangely were the various nations blended, 
who were set in motion by the irruption of the Huns, 
and the pressure of the Asiatic Alans and other tribes 
upon the pastoral nations of Europe, that it is not known 
of what people this mighty commander was originally the 
ruler. Probably he was king of the Obotritae, or some 
other nation in the neighbourhood of Mecklenberg, 
where he was worshipped as a J God after his death. 

* Olympiodorus. 
t Paulus Diaconus, 1. 13. Orosius, 1. 7 .c. 37. n. 3. 
$ Gibbon (citing Mascou. Hist, of tbe Germans, 8. 14.) mentions that 
Rhadagast was the name of a local deity of the Obotrites in Mecklen- 
berg, and adds that a hero might naturally assume the appellation of 
his tutelary God, but that it is not probable, that the barbarians should 
worship an unsuccessful hero. This is one of the vague assertions 
which are frequent in Gibbon's history, but he would have found it 
impossible to have brought any proof of the previous worship of such a 
deity. For the same reason he might with equal truth have denied 
the well-known apotheosis of Julius Csesar. Radagais, before he at- 
tempted the invasion of Italy and the extermination of the Roman 
name and authority, must have been a most successful conqueror, and 
have extended his sway over a great part of Europe, probably over all 
that remained unsubdued by the Huns east of the Rhine, and north 
of. the Danube. Prudentius, a cotemporary writer, calls him " the 
Getic tyrant coming from the Danube, with the nation of Pannonia 
which had been thirty years destructive to the empire." He probably 
meant Savian Pannonia south of the Danube, which the Goths had 
occupied. A print of the idol Radagais may be seen in Sohedius, de 
Diis Germanis, p. 720. Halee, 1728. It is there said, that amongst 



312 ATTILA, 

He has been styled by most writers king of the Goths, 
because a great part of his force was Gothic, but there 
is no reason to suppose he was a Visigoth, and he cer- 
tainly was not an Ostrogoth. Orosius calls him a pagan 
and Scythian, which conveys no distinct information, 
and it is even not unlikely that he may have been a 
Sclavonian. Whatever was his own nation, he had been 
a most successful adventurer, swelling his army with 

the Obotritse a huge statue was erected to that Radagaisius, who 
afterwards deserved the honour of a divinity at Megalopolis. A shield, 
on which was impressed the black head of a bull, covered his breast. 
His hand was armed with a military axe; a small bird sat on his head. 
See also Helmold Chron. Slav. lib. 1. e. 3. $• c. 21. — Albert Cranz, 
I. 2. c. 21. — Ludovicus de idol. Sclav. 2. §> 17. — Mesius Diss. Acad. p. 
1066. — Stedowslty in sacrd. Moravice hist. p. 37. A temple was erected 
to Radagais, and the river which washes Razeburg was called Radagai- 
sius. Nicol. Thurius de Herulis. He adds, after many splendid 
exploits, such was the end of Rhadagas, whom his people held so dear 
while living, that after his death, they venerated and worshipped him 
as a God. Maseou threw a doubt on the identity of Radagais with the 
person worshipped as a Deity by the Obotrites, (taking the notion from 
H. G. Mesius de Diis Obotr. and Teutzel Monathl. JJnterr. 1695) which 
led to the silly observation of Gibbon. M. Adamus, a writer of the 
twelfth century, (in his Hist. Eccl.) says, dwelling amongst the Slavi, 
the most powerful are the Retharii. Their city, called Rethre, was 
the seat of idolatry ; a temple was constructed there to the demons, 
the chief of whom was Radegast. His image was of gold, his bed deco- 
rated with purple. The city has twelve gates, and is surrounded on 
all sides by a deep lake ; a wooden bridge affords access to those only, 
who come to sacrifice or to consult the oracle. To this temple the 
distance is said to be four days journey from Hamburg. Helmold, who 
lived in the eleventh century, has the same account nearly in the same 
words. He calls Radegast the God of the Obotrites, that is the Meck- 
lenburgers. Rethre was probably Ratzburg, in the duchy of Saxe 
Lunenburg, and the name Ratzburg a corruption of Radagastsburg. 
In the chronicle of M. Theod. Engelhus, edited by Maderus, p. 169. it 
is said that the king of the Danes destroyed a noble Sclavonian town 



AND HIS PREDECESSORS. 313 

the fighting men of the tribes which he successively 
overthrew, and drawing others to his camp by the renown 
of his name, till he had collected an immense confede- 
rated army of Vandals, Sueves, Burgundians, Alans, and 
Goths. With this force he entered Italy, and laying 
waste the whole country north of the Po, he prepared 
to besiege Florence at the head of * 200,000 soldiers ; 
threatening that he would raze the fortifications of Rome, 

called Myneta, near Mecklenberg. There was a temple there to many 
Gods, of whom the chief was Radegast. Reimar Kock in his Chronicle 
(Lubec M.S. cit.) says there were statues and temples to Radegast at 
Gadesbusch. Over his head, according to Helmold (1. 1. c. 2.) was a 
bird with extended wings ; on his breast a black bull's head, which he 
held in his right hand. A battle-axe was in his left, and his body was 
naked. The only objection which Mesius offers to those who had 
asserted that this Deity was the royal Radagais of the fifth century, is 
that the bull's head belonged to the Vandals rather than the Goths, 
though he admits that the Goths, Vandals, Slaves, and Obotrites, were 
very much intermixed. The objection is utterly futile, for there is no 
proof whatsoever that king Radagais was a Goth ; he was very possibly 
a Vandal or a Sclavonian, but the bull's head with the Mithriac radiating 
sun on its forehead, was found also in the sepulchre of Childeric, king 
of the Francs, at Tournay. See Chiffl. An. Adam of Bremen (Hist. 
Eccl. 1. 4. c. 12.) further says, that John bishop of Mecklenberg, was 
taken by the pagans of that city, beaten with clubs, dragged through 
the various Sclavonic towns, and, as he refused to abjure Christianity, 
his hands and feet cut off, and his body cast on the road. His head 
on a pole was offered in sacrifice to the God Rhadegast in Rethre, the 
metropolis of the Slavi. Mesius (p. 45.) says that the river which 
washes Gadesbusch is called Radegast, and (p. 48, et seq.) he admits 
the general opinion, that the idol took its name from the king in the 
fifth century, and expresses his own belief that it did derive it from 
some king with the same appellation. This is carrying scepticism to 
the utmost pitch of absurdity, for no man can shew that such a God 
had been worshipped or such a name had existed amongst mankind 
before the time of that Radagais, who died in the year of our Lord 406. 
• Orosius,!. 7. c. 37. 



314 ATTILA, 

and burn her palaces ; that he would sacrifice the most 
distinguished patricians to his Gods, and compel the 
rest to adopt the mastruca,* or garment of skin dressed 
with the hair on, that was worn by some of the barbarous 
nations. The approach of this formidable enemy filled 
the Roman capital with dismay : the pagans thought 
that under the protection and with the assistance of the 
Gods, whom he was said to conciliate by daily immola- 
tions of human victims, it was impossible for him to be 
overcome, because the Romans f neither offered to the 
Gods any such sacrifices, nor permitted them to be 
offered by any one. There was a concourse of heathens 
in the town, all believing that they were visited with 
this scourge, because the sacred rites of the great Gods 
had been neglected. Loud complaints were made, and 
it was proposed to resume immediately the celebration 
of the ancient worship, and throughout the whole city 
the name of Christ was loaded with blasphemies; but 
the degenerate Romans were more disposed to curse 
and offer up sacrifice, than to fight in defence of the 
empire. A very small force was collected under Stilicho, 
and the defence of Italy was entrusted to Huldin with 
a Hunnish, Sarus with a Gothic, and Goar with an 
Alan, force of hired auxiliaries. The prudent measures 
of Stilicho ensured their success. The invading army 
was camped on the arid ridge above Fsesulae, ill furnished 
with water and provisions. Stilicho conducted his ap- 
proaches with such skill, that he blocked up all the 
avenues, and rendered it impossible for the enemy to 
draw out his army in line against him. Without the 

* Prudcntius contra Symmachum. 
t St. Aug. Civ. Dei, 5. c. 23. 



AND HIS PItEDFXKSSORS. 315 

uncertainty of a hazardous conflict, without any loss to 
be compensated by victory, the army defending Rome 
ate, drank, and were merry, while the invaders hungered, 
and thirsted, and pined away without hope of extricating 
themselves from their calamitous situation. Radagais 
despairing abandoned his army, fled, and was intercepted. 
The conqueror has been accused of sullying the glory 
of this achievement, by the deliberate murder or execu- 
tion of his prisoner. A third part of the army surren- 
dered, and the captives were so numerous, that herds 
of them * were sold for single pieces of gold, and such 
was their misery, that the greater part of them perished 
after having been purchased. The entire credit of the 
discomfiture of the invaders, is given by the writers f of 
that age to the troops of Huldin and Sarus, and the 
Roman forces are not mentioned. There were twelve 
thousand noble Goths whom the Latins called optimati \ 

* Orosius, lib. 7. 

t Orosius, lib. 7. — Prosper Aquit. Chron. — Prosper Tiro Chron. — 
Freculphus Chron. 

\ Olympiodorus. Gibbon completely misunderstood the passage in 
' Olympiodorus, and says that 1 2000 distinguished warriors " glittered 
in the van," and adds " Olympiodorus calls them o7rri^aroi which does 
not convey any precise idea j" whereas in truth Olympiodorus writes 
that the head men (Ke<pa\cuu>Tai) of the Goths, amounting to 12000, 
were called o7rri/iarot, meaning were called optimati by the Latins, 
and that Stilicho after the defeat of Radagais associated these to 
himself. Gibbon again misconstrued the latter words, which are in 
the original ovg KaTairoXtfirjaag SrfXixwv 'Podoyaioov TrpoatjTaipiaaro, 
and fancied that Stilicho defeated the 12000 nobles, whom he therefore 
calls a glittering van, and that he associated Radagais to himself after 
their discomfiture, whereupon he states incorrectly that Radagais '' con- 
fided in the faith of a capitulation or in the clemency of Stilicho;" and 
he adds, '• the word 7rpo<T*?ratpi<raro would denote a strict and friendly 



316 ATTILA, 

in the army of Radagais, and with these, after the 
disaster of their leader, Stilicho entered into confederacy. 
It appears by the chronicle of Prosper, that the army of 
Radagais was separated in three divisions under distinct 
chiefs ; one * division only perished at Faesulae ; the 
other two were untouched, and his remaining Goths 
were afterwards diverted by Stilicho into Gaul. It 
seems that there must have been treachery in the invad- 
ing army, which was not unlikely to occur, seeing that 
it consisted principally of Goths, and that he was be- 
sieged by Goths under Sarus. Supposing the two other 
divisions of the army of Radagais to have been faithful 
to him, it could scarcely be doubted that, when he 
quitted the troops who were surrounded at Fsesulae, 



alliance, and render Stilicho still more criminal." Such errors may 
appear strange from a man of high literary fame, but he too often sa- 
crificed the consideration of truth to the desire of rounding a period ; 
as for instance where he states that Attila " lay encamped at the place 
where the slow-winding Mincius is lost in the foaming waves of the 
lake Benacus!" though in fact the lake Benacus is a receptacle of 
Alpine waters, out of which the celebrated Mincius flows into the Po. 
The English of the Greek words is, whom Stilicho having defeated Ra- 
dagais associated to himself. Olympiodorus meant either that Stilicho 
enlisted the 12000 noble Goths into his army, while the rest of the 
captives were sold, as we know from Orosius and Marcellinus ; or that 
the 12000, instead of being the van as Gibbon calls them, were part of 
the untouched divisions of the great army of Radagais, with which after 
his death Stilicho made alliance, diverting them into Gaul. 

* Insigni triumpho exercitum tertiae partis hostium circumactis 
Hunnorum auxiliaribus Stilicho usque ad internecionem delevit. Prosper. 
Gothorum exercitus fame potiiis quam ferro consumptus. Isidor. Chron. 
Huldin et Sarus Hunnorum Gothorumque reges Radagaisum continuo 
devicerunt, ipsius capite amputate captivos ejus singulis aureis distra- 
hentes. Marcellinus Chron. A.D. 400. 



AND HIS PREDECESSORS. 317 

he was attempting to rejoin them, for the purpose of 
leading them on to raise the blockade, and was inter- 
cepted in that undertaking : but a due consideration of 
the subject will lead us to suspect that the account 
given by Aventinus is correct, that Huldin and Sams 
had entered Italy in concert with Radagais, but were 
seduced from his authority by Stilicho. Their force 
must have been part of the two divisions which remained 
uncaptured, and the Goths of Sarus a portion of the 
very troops which Stilicho afterwards persuaded to 
remove their quarters into Gaul ; for it is impossible 
otherwise to explain how a sufficient power of Huns and 
Goths could be at hand to oppose an army of 200,000 
men, which had already overrun and laid waste all the 
north of Italy, and had placed itself between Stilicho 
and the dominions of the Huns. The probability is 
therefore strong, that Stilicho * discomfited Radagais 

* Neither Prosper, nor Orosius mention any Romans under Stilicho. 
See Prosp. Tyro, A.B. 405 or 406. Orosius, lib. 7. c. 37. Without 
any disposition to give praise to Stilicho, who was a treacherous subject 
and a false Christian, like Aetius, we may question the justice of the 
abuse which has been lavished upon him for executing Radagais. It 
must be recollected that the barbarian had advanced with the declared 
intention of destroying Rome, of sacrificing the patricians at the altar, 
and putting to death all who would not worship his idols and adopt the 
dress of his people ; and that he had made daily immolations of his 
prisoners in sacrifice. Stilicho had probably sufficient authority for 
hanging him on the first tree, and there can be no question as to the 
moral justice of the execution; the tale of a capitulation and treaty 
being a blunder made by Gibbon. It is by no means certain that the 
execution of Radagais was the deliberate act of Stilicho, who probably 
had but a very qualified authority over the Huns and Goths, by whom 
the capture was made, and the Huns could not have forgot the cruci- 
fixion of their king, who had been captured about twenty years before 
by the Ostrogoths. Marcellinus attributes it to Huldin and Sarus. 



318 ATTILA, 

by means of his own auxiliaries, having by negoeiation 
drawn off from him two-thirds of his army, and surrounded 
the remainder, which might have consisted of sixty or 
seventy thousand men nominally, but probably was 
already reduced by the rude invasion of a hostile country. 
§ 11. From this period during some years the Huns 
do not appear to have manifested any decided hostility 
to the Romans. In 409 * a small force of Hunnish 
auxiliaries assisted them to defeat Ataulfus, and in 410 f 
Honorius appears to have hired a body of Huns to 
oppose the progress of Alaric, which is not surprising, 
as the Huns were certainly not united under any sole 
monarch, and both they and the Goths seem at that time 
to have been ready to assist the highest bidder. The 
peaceable demeanor of the Huns towards the empire is 
probably the reason that so little has reached us con- 
cerning their kings at this period. No mention of 
Huldin occurs after the campaign against Radagais, 
and, although we are told that the Hunnish satellites or 
auxiliaries of Stilicho were destroyed when he himself 
was killed, we hear of no Hunnish king, till the brief 
mention which is made by Photius, in detailing the con- 
tents of the work of Olympiodorus, of Charato, chief of 
the Hunnish petty kings. The circumstances mentioned 
by him are certainly referable to the period between the 
usurpation of Jovinus in 411 and his death in 413. 
Olympiodorus was sent on an embassy from Constan- 
tinople to Donatus and the Hunnish princes, whose 
marvellous skill in archery struck him with astonishment. 
Who Donatus was is not known, but he must have been 

* Zosimus, lib. 5. t Sigonius, lib. 10. 



AND HIS PREDECESSORS. 319 

either a Hunnish king, or a chieftain of some nation 
closely connected with them. Donatus was ensnared by 
an oath, probably of safe conduct, and unlawfully and 
treacherously put to death by the Romans. Charato 
the chief of the Hunnish kings was greatly exasperated, 
but the Romans contrived to appease his resentment by 
presents. Nothing further is known of Charato; he 
may have been the chief ruler of the Huns, or which is 
more probable, only the first of the # petty kings under 
Mundiuc. 



* Olympiodorus calls him 6 ru>v pnyoiv 7rpu>rog. The barbarous 
word prj% which is here used by Olympiodorus, appears to signify what 
the Latins called regulus, a petty king. He only uses such terms where 
the Greek language did not furnish one of the precise signification he 
wanted. He calls Sarus pr)% of a division of Goths, but he styles Alaric 
and Walia <pv\apxoi. George Pray (in his Annales Hungarise) being 
from nationality always anxious to distort historical truth, so as to esta- 
blish the antiquity of the Hungarian monarchy, and make it appear that 
the Huns were governed by a sole king, and finding it convenient for 
that purpose to fill up the gap between the death of Balamer in 386 and 
the mention of Huldin in 400, with the reign of Charato, suppresses the 
fact that Olympiodorus speaks of the Hunnish kings in the plural, and 
incorrectly asserts that the narrative is immediately followed by that of 
the death of Maximus in 388, from which he takes occasion to refer the 
reign of Charato to 380. Photius details the contents of the lost work 
of Olympiodorus in regular chronological order. He states that 
Olympiodorus related the usurpation of Jovinus (which took place in 
411) ; that he then took up the narrative concerning his own embassy 
to Donatus and the Hunnish kings, and their excellent archery ; that 
he gave a lamentable account of his wanderings and danger by sea; 
how Donatus was deceived by an oath and butchered ; how Charato the 
first of the Hunnish kings {pnywv) was incensed, and how he was after- 
wards softened and appeased by presents. That he next related the 
death of Jovinus, (which occurred in 413) and how his head was exposed 
outside of Carthagene, "where those of Constantino and Julian (who 
was his younger son) had been before cut off, and those of Maximum 



3*20 ATTILA, 

§ 12. From the year 413 no true historical competitor 
appears to contest the occupation of the Hunnish throne 
with Mundiuc, though a false king has been conjured up 
by Pray in his Hungarian annals, in the person of 
Rugas or Rhoilus. At this period the celebrated Roman 
A'etius was a hostage in the Hunnish court,* having been 
previously three years a hostage to Alaric the Goth. It 
is most probable that he was given as surety to the Huns 
for the safe return of the auxiliary force which they sent 
in 410 against Alaric. He was the son of Gaudentius, 
by birth a Scythian or Goth, who had risen from the 
condition of a menial to the highest rank in the cavalry. 
His mother was a noble and wealthy Italian, and at the 
time of his birth his father was a man of praetorian 
dignity. Aetius, having passed his youth as a hostage at 
the courts of Alaric and the Hunnish king, married the 

and Eugenius, who being traitors in the reign of Theodosius came to the 
same end." It is evident that Olympiodorus interrupted his narrative 
concerning Jovinus to relate what happened in the interval in another 
quarter. The embassy to Charato therefore certainly took place between 
411 and 413, not, as Pray assumes most inaccurately, in 386. Olympio- 
dorus must have meant that the heads of Maximus and Eugenius were 
exposed, not cut off, in the same place, for Maximus was killed by his 
soldiers before Aquileia in 388, and Eugenius beheaded near the same 
place by the troops of Theodosius in 394. Sebastian's head was sent to 
Honorius at Ravenna in 411, and his brother Constantine was sent alive 
in the same year, but was put to death before he reached Ravenna. 
Carthagene must have been in the north of Italy, perhaps the site of 
one of the gates of Ravenna or of some public building in it, where the 
heads of traitors to the court of Ravenna were usually exposed. The 
Latin translators erroneously render the name Kap9aykvrj Carthage, 
without any comment, appearing to have thought that the heads were 
cut off and exposed in Africa, though Kapxvduv is the Greek name of 
Carthage. Heschcelius thinks Carthagene is an error of the scribe for 
Ravenna, which seems very improbable. * Gregory of Tours. 



AND HIS PREDECESSORS. 321 

daughter of Carpileo, was made a count, and had the 
superintendance of the domestics and palace of Joannes. 
He was a man of middle size, of manly habits, well 
made, neither slight nor heavy, active in mind and limbs, 
a good horseman, a good archer and poleman, of con- 
summate military skill, and equally adroit in the conduct 
of civil affairs ; neither avaricious, nor covetous, endowed 
with great mental accomplishments, and never swerving 
from his purpose at the instigation of bad advisers ; very 
patient of injuries, desirous at all times of laborious 
occupation, regardless of danger, bearing without incon- 
venience hunger, thirst, and watchfulness ; to whom it is 
known to have been foretold in his early youth that he 
was destined to rise to great authority. Such is the 
character given of him by # a cotemporary writer ; to all 
which might have been added, that he was f a consum- 



* Renatus Frigeridus cited by Gregory of Tours, 
t The praises which Gibbon has lavished on this guilty man, whose 
crimes were the proximate cause of the destruction of the Roman 
empire, are very revolting. He speaks of this hypocritical traitor as a 
man " supported by the consciousness of his merit, his services, and per- 
haps his innocence ;" and he is styled " a hero and a patriot, who sup- 
ported near twenty years the ruins of the empire,'' and although he admits 
that he made " a hostile declaration against his sovereign," we are told 
that his death was the lt unworthy fate of a hero." Let the following 
brief view of some of the evil acts of his life declare his merits and his 
patriotism. He called the Huns into Italy to support the usurper John, 
and on his death obtained the command in Gaul as the price of the 
retreat of his pagan auxiliaries. By his unexampled villainy towards 
the empress and Bonifaee he threw Africa into the hands of the 
Vandals, from whence they soon after invaded and sacked Rome. 
Having slain Boniface he had again recourse to the Huns, and again 
extorted from the empress through their means the command of the 
royal army. He is believed to have tampered severally with Attila, 

Y 



322 ATTILA, 

mate villain, a treacherous subject, a false Christian, and 
a double dealer in every action of his life. In 423 his 
patron Joannes, known by the name of John the tyrant, 
(which title only implies that he possessed himself of 
unlawful authority) seized the opportunity of the death 
of Honorius to assume the sovereign power, and sent 
ambassadors to Theodosius, who threw them into prison. 
In order to strengthen himself against the attack which 
he had reason to expect, he dispatched Aetius, who was 
then superintendant of his palace, with a great weight of 
gold to the Huns, with many of whom he had become 

Meroveus, and Torismond, after the battle of Chalons, and to have pur- 
posely avoided following up the success of that day. He is accused by 
Prosper of taking no steps to oppose the invasion of Italy, and he advised 
Valentinian to evacuate Italy and take refuge in Gaul, which would 
have left him master of Rome. He educated one son Carpileo in a 
heathen court, destining him for a heathen throne, while the younger 
Gaudentius was intended to wear the imperial purple. He is accused 
by Marcellinus of having procured the murder of Attila, who had been 
his friend and protector, as well as his antagonist in the field; and his 
presents of two successive confidential secretaries to the Hunnish 
monarch will be duly appreciated by those who consider the whole 
tenor of his life. A coin which may be seen in J. Strada Epit. Thess. 
1553, p. 211. has on the reverse Etius imperator Csesar, and appears to 
testify that he had actually declared himself emperor before he was 
killed by Valentinian. In the same page is a coin of John the tyrant 
inscribed Joannes Csesar. See Prosp. Tyr. and Prosp. Aquit. from whom 
it appears that a marriage was in agitation between one of the sons of 
Aetius and one of the daughters of Valentinian, the words conjunctione 
filiorum, meaning certainly the marriage of their children, for Valen- 
tinian had no son : his two daughters were carried to Africa by Genseric 
with Gaudentius the son of Aetius to whom one of them was betrothed. 
See also Sidon. Apoll. Carm. 5. v. 204. where it appears that the other 
son Carpileo, who inherited the name of his maternal grandfather, was 
destined for a Gctic throne. See also the notes of Savaro, Paris, 1609, 
Cassiodorus, and Idatius. 



AND HIS PREDECESSORS. 323 

united by close ties of personal * friendship, while he 
was a hostage at their court. In 425 f the Huns entered 
Italy under the guidance of Aetius. Their number has 
been estimated at J 60,000. It is not known by whom 
they were commanded, though it has been asserted that 
Attila was then twenty-five years old § and headed the 
expedition. At this critical moment Joannes was killed, 
and the subtle Aetius immediately made his peace with 
Valentinian, who was glad to receive the traitor into 
favour, on condition of his removing the formidable army 
of invaders from Italy. Having advanced in compliance 
with the request of Aetius, and already received the gold 
of Joannes, they were easily prevailed upon to withdraw 
by him who had conducted them, and they appear to have 
returned home without committing any outrages, which 
marks the great influence that Aetius had acquired over 
their leaders. 

§ 13. It seems however most probable that they were 
commanded by Rhuas, who in the succeeding year 
threatened that he would destroy Constantinople, and 
probably made an incursion into the territory of the 
Eastern emperor, though the marvellous account which 
is given of the expedition by cotemporary writers is a 
gross and palpable falsehood, which must be detailed 
only to be confuted. Theodoret, who lived at the time 
when this event is said to have taken place, after speak- 
ing of the destruction of pagan temples and the general 
superintendance of Providence, says, " for indeed when 
" Rhoilus the leader of the Nomad Scythians both 

* Greg. Turon. lib. 2. c. 8. 
t Cassiodorus Chron. ad xi. Theodosii et prim. cons. 
$ Anon. Epit. Hist. Byz. § Bonfinins— Dcsericius- 

Y 2 



324 ATTILA, 

" crossed the Danube with an army of the greatest 
" magnitude, and laid waste and plundered Thrace, 
" and threatened that he would besiege the imperial 
" city, and take it by main force, and utterly destroy it, 
" God having struck him with # lightning and bolts of 
" fire from above, both destroyed him by fire, and 
" extinguished the whole of his army." Socrates, also 
cotemporaneous, writes to the following effectf " After 
" the slaughter of John the tyrant, the barbarians, whom 
" he had called to his assistance against the Romans, 
" were prepared to overrun the Roman possessions. 
" The emperor Theodosius, having heard this, accord- 
" ing to his custom, left the care of these things to the, 
" Almighty ; and, applying himself to prayer, not long 
" after obtained the things which he desired ; for what 
" straightways befell the barbarians, it is good to hear. 
" Their leader, whose name was Rhugas, dies, having 
" been struck by lightning, and a pestilence super- 
" vening consumed the greater part of the men who 
" were with him ; and this struck the barbarians with 
" the greatest terror, not so much because they had 
" dared to take up arms against the noble nation of the 
" Romans, as because they found it assisted by the power 
" of God." Well indeed might the Huns have trembled, 
and all Europe have quaked even to the present day at 
the recollection of such a manifest and terrible inter- 
position of the Almighty, if the Hurmish king with an 
immense army had been so annihilated, and, as Socrates 
proceeds to say, in pursuance of an express prophecy : 



* GKr)7rTolg icai 7rp7](TTfip<n. The passage is literally translated from 
the Greek. t Socr. Eccles. Hist. 1. 7. c. 43. Literally translated. 



AND HIS PREDECESSORS. 325 

but it is easy to demonstrate the falsehood of the narra- 
tive. Theodoret immediately subjoins to the passage 
cited from him, that the Lord did something of the same 
kind in the Persian war, when the Persians, having 
broken the existing treaty and attacked the Roman pro- 
vinces, were overpowered by rain and hail; that in a 
former war, Gororanus having attacked a certain town, 
the archbishop alone broke his lofty towers and engines 
to pieces and saved the city ; that on another occasion a 
city being beleaguered by a barbarian force, the bishop 
of the place put with his own hands an enormous stone 
on a balista or engine called the apostle Thomas, and 
firing it off in the name of the Lord knocked off the 
head of the king of the barbarians, and thereby raised 
the siege. The fellowship of such tales takes away all 
faith from that which concerns the Huns. But accord- 
ing to Socrates, the event was prophesied by Ezekiel, 
and the prophecy applied previously by the bishop of 
Constantinople ; and here we arrive at the clue to 
explain how such a marvellous relation came to be 
credited. " Archbishop Proems'' (continues Socrates) 
" preached on the prophecy of Ezekiel, and the pro- 
" phecy was in these words — And thou, son of man, 
" prophesy against Gog the ruler, Rhos, Misoch, and 
" Thobel ; for I will judge him with death and blood, 
" and overflowing rain and hailstones ; for 1 will rain 
" fire and brimstone upon him and all those with him, 
" and on the many nations with him ; and I will be 
" magnified and glorified, and I will be known in the 
" presence of many nations, and they shall know that I 
" am the Lord." This prophecy is put together from 
the second verse of the 38th ch. of Ezekiel, " Son of 



396 ATTILA, 

u man, set thy face against Gog, the land of Magog. 
tt the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal, and prophesy 
gainst him.'' and the *2*2d and *23d verses. •• I will 
iS plead against him," &c. The word Rhos upon which 
the application of this prophecy to the Hunnish Rhuas 
rested, occurs in the Septuagint, though it is not in the 
Vulgate, the word having been rendered by St. Jerome 
head, and applied to the following word, signifying the 
head or chief prince of Meshech. The archbishop was 
wonderfully praised for this adaptation of the prophecy, 
and. according to Socrates, it was the universal topic of 
conversation in Constantinople ; and doubtless this adap- 
tation gave birth to the marvellous history, Rhuas had 
threatened to destroy Constantinople ; while the people 
were expecting his attack, the archbishop assures them 
that God had expressly denounced by his prophet that 
he would destroy Rhuas and his people with fire and 
brimstone from heaven. Rhuas never came near Con- 
stantinople : the archbishop's prediction was confirmed 
in the important part that concerned the safety of its 
inhabitants, and the story became current that it had 
been entirely fulfilled, and that Rhuas and his army had 
perished accordingly. The story is confined to the 
Greek divines : not one of the Latin chronicles of that 

_ mentions any expedition of the Huns under Rhuas 
against the Eastern empire. Bishops Idatius, Prosper, 
and Jornandes are silent : Cassiodorus and Marcellinus 
are silent : but if such a manifestation of the Almighty 
had occurred, or any thing that could give colour to such 
a belief had really taken place, Europe would have rung 
with the rumour oi it to its very furthest extremities. 

Proeopius relates the death oi John the tyrant, but 



AND HIS PREDECESSORS. 327 

nothing concerning Rhuas. To complete the refutation 
of the tale we learn from Priscus, who was sent on an 
embassy to the Huns from Constantinople, only twenty- 
two years after the date of the supposed catastrophe, that 
Rhuas was alive after the consulship of Dionysius which 
took place in 429, that is three years after the time when 
the divine vengeance is said to have overtaken him ; and 
the chronicle of Prosper Tyro says that Rhuas died in 
434. The Hungarian annalist, Pray, carrying absurdity 
to the highest pitch, and aware that Rhuas was alive in 
in 429, asserts that there must have been two kings, one 
Rugas killed by fire from heaven, and another by name 
Rhuas his successor ; and he accuses all foregoing writers 
of having confounded them, though there is not the 
slightest reason for imagining that there were # two such 
kings, except the inconvenient circumstance of his being 
found alive long after the time when he should have 
been exterminated, to fulfil the prediction of the Byzan- 
tine prelate. 

§ 14. It is known from Jornandes that Rhuas and 
Octar were brothers of Mundiuc and kings of the Huns 
before the reign of Attila, but that they had not the 
sovereign authority over all the Huns. The date of 
their accession is no more known than that of Mundiuc. 

* The word Rhos in the prophecy which is applied to him, shews 
that Rhuas was the person meant, and not Rugas as a distinct name ; 
but the variations in his appellation are of no moment. The Greeks 
and Romans were very loose in rendering the names of the barbarians. 
Prosper Tyro calls Rhuas Rugila, Nicephoras writes Rhougas, and his 
translator Langus puts Roilas ; Epiphanius Scholasticus styles him 
Rhoilas, and Jornandes Roas, which comes nearer the word Rhos. 
Priscus names him Rhouas, which in Latin orthography would be 
Rhuas. 



328 ATTILA, 

Pray, who is always expert in distorting the truth to sup- 
port his own theory, assumes inaccurately from Jornandes 
that, on the death of Mundiuc, Attila his son was a 
minor, and that Octar and Rhuas his uncles had been 
appointed by his father to be his guardians. There is no 
authority for the supposition, excepting that Calanus 
says Mundiuc commended his sons with their portion of 
the kingdom to his brother Subthar. Octar, otherwise 
called Subthar, and Rhuas were probably kings in con- 
junction with their brother. We do not know that 
Attila was not also a king during their life-time, which 
the expression of Calanus seems to imply, and even 
during his father's reign, for his own son had regal 
authority during his life-time. Octar and Rhuas did 
not reign over all the Huns, yet after their death and 
the murder of his brother Bleda, Attila was sole monarch, 
which seems to imply that Attila and Bleda were the 
kings who had reigned over those not subject to their 
uncles. The very circumstance of the joint reign of 
Attila and Bleda, till the latter was removed by murder, 
shews that brothers had a concurrent right of sovereignty 
amongst the Huns, and would lead us to conclude that 
Octar and Rhuas were associated with Mundiuc, and 
Calanus expressly says that Subthar (otherwise called 
Octar) did reign in conjunction with Mundiuc. Pray 
argues that if they held the throne in their own right, 
and not as guardians, CEbarses, who is mentioned by 
Priscus as another son of Mundiuc, should have been a 
king also, which he does not appear to have been ; but 
this is quite erroneous, for CEbarses is not said to have 
been by the same mother ; and it is clear, that although 
the Hunnish kings were allowed to indulge in polygamy, 



AND HIS PREDECESSORS. 329 

there was one queen with superior rights, whose children 
alone were entitled to succeed. Attila had a legion of 
wives and a host # of children, but Priscus only mentions 
by name three sons,f who were children of Creca whom 
he calls especially his wife and not one of his wives, and 
they alone succeeded to his dignities, though the other 
sons wished the kingdom to be equally divided amongst 
them. 

§ 15. In the obscure period of Mundiuc's reign, the 
first collision of the Huns with the Burgundians must 
have taken place, which led to events celebrated in the 
romantic legends of almost the whole of Europe north 
of the Danube, of which it is however very difficult to 
unravel the real history. The Burgundiones (supposed 
to be the Frugundiones of Ptolemy) had their earliest 
recorded kingdom near the Vistula, on the borders of 
Germany and Sarmatia. At that time Born-holm or 
Burgundar-holm in the Baltic seems to have been their 
sacred place of deposit for the dead, an island perhaps 
consecrated like Mona or Iona. From the Vistula they 
appear to have advanced to the Oder, and having ap- 
proached the Rhine in 359, as early as 413 % they 
established themselves, 80,000 in number, on the Gallic 
side of that river. Athanaric§ is the earliest of their 
chiefs who is recorded to have reigned near the Rhine, 
marrying Blysinda daughter of Marcomir, who was the 



* Filii Attilae, quorum per licentiam pene populus fuit, &c. Jornandes 
cle reb. Get. c. 50. t Priscus, p. 197. Bounce, 18'29. 

% Ammianus Marcellinus, lib. 18. c. 1. Prosp. et Cassiod. Clirou. 
A.D. 413. De Usone in regionem Francorum, Burgundionum 80 fere 
millia, quot mmquam antea, ad Rhenum desccndunt. Cassiod. Chron. 
§ Wolfgang Lazius. 



330 ATTILA, 

sire of Pharamond. His eldest son # Gondegesil suc- 
ceeded him, and dying, left the crown to his brother 
Gundioc or Gondaker, who had three sons, Gondegesil, 
Gondemar, otherwise called Gunnar or Gunther, and 
Gondebod. The royal family of the Burgundians were 
called Mbelungian or Nifflungian, and were supposed to 
have brought with them a great treasure of gold which 
was probably removed from Born-holm. During the 
reign of Mundiuc f the Huns made successful incursions 
into the territory of the Burgundians, plundered their 
towns, and reduced them to a state of dependence. The 
Arian priests took advantage of their miserable and de- 
pressed state to inculcate their doctrines amongst them, 
representing idolatry to be the cause of their reverses ; 
whereupon the Burgundians embraced a qualified sort 

* Gond-gesil i. e. aureus socius. Gondioch or Gonde akher, i. e. bonus 
aut aureus ager. Godomar or Gondemar, i. e. bonus aut aureus domi- 
nus. Gondeboden, i. e. aureus nuncius. Gunt-trani aureus somniator, 
the son of Clotaire. Wolfgang Lazius. The word Gond, which implies 
gold, runs through all their appellations. Burgundy itself means 
Cote d'or, being a compound of berg, a hill, and gond, gold. The name 
Gondaker is very similar, meaning a golden-field, but the termination 
ioch probably means conqueror, whether written giuk, dioc, zuch, or 
cuck. Joch is a yoke, jochen to conquer ; gaiukan to conquer in the 
Gothic gospel of Ulphilas. Hence Gond-ioc is called in the Scandi- 
navian legends Giuka, which is a prolongation of the last syllable 
without the preceding gond or golden. The Burgundians are said to 
have been called Nibelungians from Neefil, one of the nine sons of Half- 
dane and Alfrica princess of Holmgard, who was the great grandfather 
of Giuka. See note in Cochlcei Vita Theodorici, p. 532. 

t I apprehend that the old man Melias king of the Huns mentioned 
in the Scandinavian Wilkina saga as having been succeeded by Attila, 
is Mundiuc. Attila is there called the son of Osid prince of Friessland, 
but a successful adventurer amongst the Huns, who became king after 
.Melias. 



AND HIS PREDECESSORS. 331 

of Christianity, and were baptized into the Arian faith. 
Octar,* after the death of his brother, proceeded in the 
year 430 with a large army of Huns into Burgundy to 
chastise their apostate and rebellious vassals ; but he 
was defeated with great slaughter, and perished in the 
expedition, though probably not in battle. Elated by 
this success, the Burgundian king seems to have thought 
himself strong enough to fight single-handed against all 
opponents, and, instead of courting the alliance of any 
one of the great powers, disposed himself to make head 
against them all. 

§ 16. When the unexpected death of John the tyrant 
had rendered abortive the invasion of Italy by the Huns 
under the guidance of Aetius, that skilful negociator 
made his terms with Valentinian and Placidia, and the 
chief command of the army in Gaul was the reward 
which he immediately received for the dismissal of the 
Huns. In the very next year he delivered f Aries from 
the Visigoths, and in 428 he recovered from ClodionJ 
king of the Francs the parts of Gaul near the Rhine 
which had been occupied by him, and in the following 
year he overpowered the § Juthungi in Bavaria. Having 
brought to an end the Vindelician or Bavarian war, in 
the autumn or the following spring he defeated the Bur- 

* Called Subthar by Calanus, Uptar by Socrates, and Octar by 
Jornandes. The date is fixed by the death of Barbas the Arian bishop, 
who died at the time of Octar's expedition, in the thirteenth consulship 
of Theodosius and third of Valentinian, which was the year 430. See 
Socrates, lib. 7. c. 20. The dates therefore given by Sigonius 428, by 
Sigebertus Gemblacensis 433, by Callesius 434, and by Tillemont 437, 
arc all erroneous. + Prosper Tyro, A. D. 426. Idat. Chron. O. 312. 

X Prosp. Aquit. A.D. 428. Cassiod. Chron. 428. 
§ Prosp. Tyro, A.D. 420. 



332 ATTILA, 

gundians who were pressing sorely on the Belgians, and 
on that # occasion the Huns, Herulians, Francs, Sauro- 
matians, Salians, and Gelons fought against him. This 
conflict must have taken place immediately before the 
disaster of Octar's army, when the Huns and their 
auxiliaries were probably invading some part of the 
Belgic territory, and the check they received on that 
occasion may have encouraged the Burgundians to re- 
volt and overpower them. In the year 432 Bonifacius 
his rival, who had been urged to acts of treason, and 
betrayed by the perfidy of A'etius, returned from Africa 
to Rome, and obtained the dignity f of Master of the 
forces. A personal conflict took place between them, 
in which A'etius was worsted, but his antagonist died a 
few days after from the effects of a wound which he had 
then received. Aetius retired to his villa, but an at- 
tempt having been there made upon his life by the par- 
tisans of Bonifacius, he fled into Dalmatia, and from 
thence he proceeded to the court of J Rhuas king of the 
Huns in Pannonia. The great influence, which he had 
obtained amongst them, had suffered no diminution, 
and at the head of a Hunnish army he once more 
threatened the throne of Valentinian. The Romans 
called the Visigoths to their assistance, but no engage- 
ment took place on this occasion ; Placidia and her son 

* Sidonius Apollinaris Paneg. Avit. v. 238. 

t Magister militum. Gibbon calls this title "Master General of the 
Roman armies" improperly, for Marcellinus mentions Asper, Anatolius, 
and John the Vandal, as bearing at the same time the rank of Magister 
Militum. It was perhaps a title analogous to the modern field-marshal, 
giving rank and command over all generals of the empire of senior 
grade. 

$ PJ-osp. Tyro, A. D.433. Prosp. Aquit. A.D. 432. Sigeb. Gembl. 435. 



AND HIS PREDECESSORS. 333 

submitted to the demands of Aetius, and he returned 
again with accumulated honours to command the army 
in Gaul. His antagonists were now the Burgundians, 
who must have provoked the Romans by making inroads 
or attempting to establish themselves on the territory of 
the empire ; and # in 435 he completely routed them 
with exceeding great slaughter, and forced their king to 
throw himself upon his mercy. 

§ 17. In the mean time immediately after the re- 
storation of Aetius to favour, his protector f Rhuas had 
died, and Attila had succeeded:): to the throne in Pan- 
nonia. His brother Bleda reigned over a portion of 
the Huns, apparently § nearer to the confines of Asia. 
It is not known with certainty which was the eldest, the 
fact not being stated by any author of decisive authority; 
but as Priscus, whenever he mentions them in conjunc- 
tion, places the name of Attila first, and Jornandes states 
that he succeeded to the throne with his brother Bleda, 
the presumption is very strong that Attila || was the 
eldest. The Hungarian writers ^ who have attributed to 

* Prosp. Tyr. A. D. 436. Prosp. Aquit. 435. Idat. Chron. 436. 
Cassiod. Chron. 435. 

t Aetius in gratiam receptus ; Rugila rex Chunorum, cum quo pax 
firmata, moritur ; cui Bleda successit. Prosp. Tyro, A.D. 434. 
\ Priscus, c. 2. §. 1. 

$ Nicolas Olaus says from the Tibiscus (Teiss) to the Tanais. Calanus 
says that Bleda was the eldest. 

|| The opinion entertained by some, that Bleda was the eldest, seems 
to have arisen from the words of Prosper Tyro, who writes that Bleda 
succeeded Rhuas, though immediately after he mentions the two kings 
Attila and Bleda ; whereas Priscus says that Attila succeeded, the 
truth being that both had kingly power. If the two statements were 
not compatible, the authority of Priscus would be preferable. 
1[ Nicolas Olaus, Thurocz, and others. 



334 ATTILA, 

Attila the extraordinary age of 124, state also that he 
was born and died on the same days of the year as 
Julius Csesar, and that he was seventy-two years old 
when he was made king, considering that he acceded 
to the throne in 402, and that he was an efficient com- 
mander of the troops, when the Huns entered Europe 
in 374. This monstrous absurdity is only surpassed by 
the assertion, that, after his death, a son, said to have 
been borne to him by the Roman princess Honoria, fled 
to the father of Attila, who was still living in extreme 
old age and debility. The words of Priscus, who was 
personally acquainted with Attila, afford a decisive refu- 
tation to those who attribute to him extraordinary lon- 
gevity and a protracted reign. He states on the authority 
of Romulus the father-in-law of Orestes, the favourite of 
Attila,* with whom he conversed in the presence of 
Constantius who had been secretary to Attila, and of 
Constantiolus a native of Pseonia which was subject to 
him, that no king, either of the Scythians or of any 
other country, had done such great things in so short a 
time. The date of Attila's f accession to the supreme 

* Priscus, p. 185-199. Bounce, 1829. 
t Desericius and others consider that Attila acceded to the throne 
after the fall of Bela, Cadica, and Cheve, a very questionable passage 
in the Hungarian writers, and which, if not altogether fictitious, must 
be referred to the year 380, which would give 74 years for the reign of 
Attila. The Scandinavian romances assert that Attila fought with and 
conquered Ermanric the Goth, who was subdued by the Huns under 
Balamer soon after they entered Europe, and doubtless such false 
histories gave rise to the notion of his longevity. The same legends 
make Theodoric, king of Italy, who was born after the death of Attila, 
his coadjutor against Ermanric in the previous century, but it is evident 
that the writers of such legends having taken Attila and Theodoric for 
their heroes, have attached to their names the brilliant achievements 
of other days. 



AND HIS PREDECESSORS. -335 

power, at least over that portion of the Huns, which was 
in contact with the Romans, is fixed with great pre- 
cision by comparing the words of two cotemporary 
writers. Priscus says that Rhuas, being king over the 
Huns, had determined to wage war against the Amilsuri, 
Itamari, Tonosures, Boisci, and other nations bordering 
on the Danube, who had entered into confederation with 
the Romans. Thereupon he sent Eslas, who had been 
accustomed to negociate between him and the Romans, 
to threaten that he would put an end to the subsisting 
peace, unless the Romans would deliver up to him all 
those who had fled from the Huns to their protection. 
The Romans, desirous of sending an embassy to Rhuas, 
fixed upon Plinthas of Scythian, and Dionysius of 
Thracian, extraction, both generals and men of consular 
dignity. It was however not thought expedient to des- 
patch the ambassadors before the return of Eslas to the 
court of his sovereign, and Plinthas sent with him Sen- 
gilachus, one of his dependants, to persuade Rhuas to 
treat with no other Roman than himself. " But (con- 
" tinues Priscus) Rhuas having come to his end, and 
" the kingdom of the Huns passed unto Attila, it 
" seemed fitting to the Roman Senate, that Plinthas 
" should proceed upon the embassy to them." Diony- 
sius was not consul till 429, and the chronicle of Prosper 
Tyro fixes the death of Rhuas in 434. In that year 
therefore it appears that Attila succeeded to the throne 
of his uncle in conjunction with his brother Bleda, who 
ruled over a considerable distinct force of Huns, but 
may perhaps have * resided near Attila in Pannonia. The 

* See Priscus, Bonnae, 1829. p. 225, where he states that Attila could 
not tolerate the buffoon Zorcon ; but that Bleda delighted in him, &C. 



336 ATTILA., 

manner of the death of Rhuas is not recorded, the re- 
lation of his destruction by fire from heaven before 
Constantinople being disproved; but the language of 
Jornandes throws a strong suspicion upon Attila of 
having removed him by murder, for after mentioning his 
succession to his uncles, and relating that he slew his 
brother, to obtain an augmentation of power, he adds 
that he had proceeded # by the slaughter of all his rela- 
tives. We have no reason to believe that any other 
relative stood between him and the supreme authority, 
and it is not credible that Jornandes should represent a 
single act of fratricide as the murder of all his family. 
It is barely possible, that, although Rhuas did not die 
by lightning before Constantinople, as alleged by the 
Greek ecclesiastics, it may have been given out by his 
murderers in 434, that he was struck by lightning, 
and that he may even have been destroyed by some 
explosion of chemical fire, as was probably the case with 
the emperor f Carus, who is universally said by old 
historical writers to have been struck by lightning while 
lying sick in his tent ; though it cannot be reasonably 

and p. 184, where he mentions one of the widows of Bleda residing near 
the ahode of Attila. 

* Tendens ad discrimen omnium nece suorum. Jornandes de reb. 
Get. c. 35. This has not been observed by any later writers. The words 
of Priscus rsXevTr)<ravrog 8e K Pova do not at all negative the suspicion. 
In the preceding chapter, which is lost, he had perhaps related the 
mode of his death. Speaking of something which occurred after the 
murder of Bleda, he uses the same expression, fxera tie ttjv avrov 
TeX&vrrjv, " after his end." Mama and Atakam, whom Attila crucified, 
were perhaps amongst the number of his relatives, to whose slaughter 
Jornandes alludes. 

t See Gibbon, c. 12. A.D. 283. 



AND HIS PREDECESSORS. 337 

doubted, on reading the letter of his secretary, that he 
was murdered by his chamberlains. 

§ 18. The age of Attila at the time of his accession 
cannot be ascertained. Rejecting as absurd the accounts 
of his great age, we cannot assent to such an abridge- 
ment of his life as Pray has made, in order to accom- 
modate his notion of an undivided and hereditary 
monarchy. Assuming that he must have been a minor 
when his father died, and forgetting that, if his uncles 
had occupied the sovereign authority merely as guar- 
dians, they would have been bound to resign it when 
Attila arrived at manhood, and that he was not of a 
character to live until twenty-six years of age, if unjustly 
excluded, without making any attempt to possess himself 
of his hereditary rights, he assigns twenty years to him, 
as the maximum of his age in 428, when his father died, 
and twenty-six when he succeeded Rhuas in 434. But 
he has entirely overlooked a circumstance which shews 
the inconsistency of this calculation ; which is, that, if 
Attila by the Hunnish laws could not have reigned 
under the age of twenty-one, his son could not have 
done so ; yet in 448 Priscus, having been at the court 
of Attila, relates the elevation of the eldest son of Attila 
and Creca by his father's directions to the throne # of 
the Acatzires and other nations near the Euxine. If 
barely twenty-one in 448 he must have been born in 
427, and Attila must have been married to Creca at 
least as early as 426, two years before the death of 
Mundiuc, at which period according to Pray's calcula- 
tion he could have been but eighteen years old ; and it 

' Prisons, p. 1!)7. Bonn. 1829 
Z 



338 ATTILA, 

would not be easy to shew that the Himnish monarch 
was likely to establish his son by marriage to that woman 
who amongst his numerous wives was to give heirs to 
the throne, while it was still deemed necessary to hold 
him in tutelage. That Attila must have been married 
to Creca before the year 427 is all that we can ascer- 
tain ; if barely twenty-one at that time, he must have 
been born as early as 406, and would have been twenty- 
eight when he succeeded Rhuas, but it is most likely 
that he was older. Creca was perhaps his first wife, and 
her children on that account heirs to the throne, and it 
is most likely that he was raised to the rank of a petty 
king during the life of his father. The old Scandinavian 
legends, concerning which more will be said hereafter, 
speak much of his residence at the court of Gundioc or 
Giuka king of Burgundy, (calling Attila by the name of 
Sigurd) and of his intimacy with Gundaker or Gunnar 
the Burgundian prince. In all these accounts he is de- 
scribed as the greatest warrior of his age. It is very 
probable that Attila was employed in the first subjuga- 
tion . of the Burgundians, and, while they remained in 
vassalage under the Huns, the young prince of Burgundy 
must, in the natural course of things, have served under 
Attila in his campaigns against the petty chieftains of 
the neighbouring countries. 

§ 19. In consequence of the death of Rhuas,*' by a 
decree of the senate which was approved by the em- 
peror Theodosius, Plinthas was despatched to the court 
of Attila without Dionysius, and at his special request it 
was decreed, that Epigenes, who had served the office of 
quaestor, a man much considered on account of his 

* Priscus. 



AND HIS PREDECESSORS. 339 

learning, should accompany him. They proceeded to 
Margus a town of Mcesian Illyria near the Danube, 
opposite the fortress Constantia which was on the 
northern bank, whither the two Hunnish kings had re- 
sorted. Attila and Bleda advanced without the walls 
on horseback, not choosing to receive the Roman em- 
bassy on foot. The Roman ambassadors, consulting 
their dignity, mounted their horses also, that they might 
be on equal terms with the Huns ; but, notwithstanding 
their momentary exaltation, they proceeded immediately 
to sign a most disgraceful treaty, which was ratified by 
the oaths of either party, according to the customary 
ceremonials of their respective countries. The Romans 
bound themselves to send back to the Huns all those 
who, at however distant a period, had fled from their 
dominion and taken refuge under Roman protection, 
and also all Roman prisoners who had escaped from 
captivity without paying ransom, and in default of the 
restoration of any such prisoner, eight pieces of gold 
were to be given for each head to their former captors. 
They further promised to give no assistance to any bar- 
barian nation, that should wage war against the Huns. 
It was agreed that trade should be carried on between 
the two powers on equal terms, and that peace should 
continue between them so long as the Romans failed 
not to pay seven hundred pounds weight of gold annually 
to the Huns, the tribute exacted until that time having 
been no more than three hundred and fifty pounds. 
Thereupon the fugitives were actually given up, amongst 
whom were two youths of the blood royal, Mama and 
Atakam, who were immediately crucified in Carsus a 
fortress of Thrace, as a punishment for their flight. 

z 2 



340 ATTILA, 

§ 20. In this year the Roman princess Honoria, 
having disgraced herself by an illicit connexion with her 
chamberlain Eugenius, and her pregnancy having been 
detected, was expelled from the palace at Ravenna, and 
sent by her mother Placidia to Theodosius at Constan- 
tinople, where she was placed under the superintendance 
of his sister Pulcheria, who lived under a religious vow 
of celibacy, to which she adhered even when, after the 
death of her brother, she espoused Marcian as a support 
to the throne, but excluded him from conjugal rights. 
The # princess, not less ambitious than devoted to 
pleasure, secretly excited Attila against the Western em- 
pire by the tender of her hand. He does not appear to 
have accepted the proposal at the time, and the offer 
was perhaps repeated at a later period, f when it 
suited his plans to demand her in marriage. Having 
concluded peace on such advantageous terms with the 

* A.D. 434. Ariobindo et Aspare coss. Marcellinus, Chron. 
t Pray argues that if Attila had been seventy, as represented by 
some Hungarian writers, Honoria, a licentious young woman, would not 
have wished to marry him ; but Honoria wanted freedom from confine- 
ment and enjoyment of power, and whether Attila was old or young, 
he certainly was notoriously ugly, so that this argument is of no value, 
for whether he were seventy or twenty, she could not have coveted his 
person, though she might well have been dazzled by the splendour of 
his renown. Jornandes states that Honoria, having been kept shut up 
by her brother Valentinian to preserve her from incontinence, had sent 
an eunuch to Attila to ask his protection against her brother ; and adds 
that it was " a most unworthy deed, that she might obtain license to 
gratify her desires at the expence of public calamity." Jornandes 
mentions this previous occurrence, when stating Attila's threat on his 
evacuation of Italy, that he would return with greater force, if Honoria 
was not immediately sent to him ; and subsequent writers, fancying 
that he meant Honoria had then applied to Attila, which is not stated, 
have improperly referred her application to the last year of Attila's life. 



AND HIS PREDECESSORS. 341 

Romans, Attila with his brother Bleda marched against 
some tribes of Scythians, who had either not yet sub- 
mitted to the authority or had presumed to shake off 
the yoke of the Huns, and they immediately attacked 
the * Sorosgi in the east of Europe. This expedition 
was undoubtedly attended with the success that usually 
crowned the arms of Attila, but the particulars of it 
have perished with the lost work of Priscus. Having 
reduced his Scythian adversaries, he turned his thoughts 
to avenge the overthrow of his uncle by the Burgun- 
dians, and in 436 he vanquished them with great 
slaughter and the loss of their f sovereign. In the year 
437 the Romans, undoubtedly through the influence of 
Aetius, obtained the assistance of a body of Hunnish 
auxiliaries, who were conducted by the Roman general 
Litorius against the Visigoths then laying siege to Nar- 
bonne. The two armies were drawn up in line against 
each other, and shewed the most determined counte- 
nance, and it seemed as if the fortunes of Theodoric 
must depend upon the issue of that day, but the collision 
of these formidable armies was suspended by negocia- 



* Pray erroneously places this expedition at a later period after 
the adjustment of the differences between the Huns and Azimunthians, 
because Priscus says that having concluded peace they moved against 
the Sorosgi ; though the words immediately follow the details of the 
peace of Margus in 434. — Priscus, 2. § 2. 

f Prosper Aquitanicus says that the Burgundian monarch did not 
long enjoy the peace which had been granted to him by Aetius, since 
the Huns exterminated him together with his people and family. This 
account is however an exaggeration, for his son undoubtedly succeeded 
to the throne, but it tends to uphold the account given in the Scandi- 
navian and old German legends of the slaughter of his sons Qunther and 
Hagen, though at a later period. 



"342 ATTILA, 

tion, the Goths and the Huns shook hands upon the 
field of battle, and Attila was appeased by the con- 
cessions of the Visigoths. What advantages he obtained 
by this bloodless victory and the dereliction of the Roman 
interests, we are not informed by Jornandes who relates 
the circumstance, but he styles Attila at this period the 
sole ruler of almost the whole Scythian nation throughout 
the world, and of marvellous celebrity amongst all 
nations, a statement which very ill accords with the 
suggestions of Pray, who makes him a novice just 
emerged from the tutelage of his uncles. Two years 
after however Litorius appeared again in the field against 
Theodoric at the head of an army of Huns, who seem 
to have been subsidized by the Romans. The Huns 
fought with their usual valour, and the victory was for 
awhile doubtful, but the unparalleled rashness and im- 
prudence of Litorius rendered the exertions of his 
troops unavailing. He was taken by the Goths, and led 
ignominiously through the streets of Narbonne ; the 
Hunnish auxiliaries were completely routed, and we do 
not hear of their ever again having acted in concert with 
the Romans. From this time we have no account of 
any proceedings of the Huns in Gaul, till the year of 
the great battle of Chalons, and the attention of Attila 
appears to have been principally directed against the 
Eastern empire. 

§ 21. It is exceedingly difficult to adjust the dates 
and particulars of the several events that are mentioned 
by different writers. The capture of Margus and 
Viminacium, which seems to have been the first act 
of hostility against Theodosius, has been referred by 
Belius to the year 434, immediately after the reduction 



AND HIS PREDECESSORS. 343 

of the Sorosgi, but it is not credible that Margus should 
have been captured by the Huns, immediately after the 
peace concluded there. On the contrary, the account 
of Priscus * makes it evident that those events directly 
preceded a more important attack on the dominions of 
Theodosius, and they are clearly referable to the year 
439, following immediately the disaster of Litorius in 
Gaul. During the security of a great annual fair in 
the neighbourhood of the Danube, the Hunnish army 
fell unexpectedly on the Roman, seized on the fortress 
which protected them, and slew a great number of their 
people. Remonstrances were made concerning this 
flagrant breach of faith, but the Huns replied, that 
they were by no means the aggressors, because the 
bishop of Margus had entered their territory, and pillaged 
the royal domain ; and that, unless he was immediately 
delivered into their hands, together with all the fugitives 
whom the Romans were bound by treaty to give up, 
they would prosecute the war with greater severity. 
The Romans denied the truth of their complaint, but 
the Huns, confident in their assertion, declined entering 
into proofs of their accusation, and, having crossed the 
Danube, carried war and devastation into the forts 
and cities of their enemies, and, amongst others of 
less importance, they captured f Viminacium, a Mysian 
city in Illyria. So fallen was the spirit and vigour of 
the Roman empire, that, notwithstanding the alleged 
innocence of the bishop of Margus, it began to be pretty 

* Priscus, 1. $ 1. 
t Margus was situated on the southern bank of the Danube at the 
confluence of the Moravaa little below Belgrade ; Viminacium on the 
northern bank in the Banat a little lower. 



344 ATTILAy 

loudly suggested that he ought rather to be delivered 
up to the vengeance of the barbarians, than the whole 
territory of the empire exposed to their atrocities. The 
bishop, aware of his perilous situation, secretly passed 
over to the enemy, and offered to deliver up the town, 
if the Scythian princes would enter into terms with him. 
They promised him every possible advantage, if he 
would make good his proposal, pledging their hands 
and confirming the agreement by oaths ; whereupon the 
bishop returned into the Roman territory with a great 
force of Huns, and having placed them opposite the 
bank of the river in ambush, in the night time he arose 
at the appointed signal, and delivered up the town to 
its enemies. Margus having been thus taken and sacked 
by the Huns, they became daily more formidable, and 
waxed in strength and insolence. In the following 
year (441) Attila collected an army consisting specially 
of his own Huns, and wrote to the emperor Theodosius 
concerning the fugitives in the Roman territory and 
the tribute which had been withheld from him on occasion 
of the war, demanding that they should be instantly 
delivered up, and ambassadors sent to arrange with him 
concerning the payments to be made in future ; and 
he added that if they made any delay or warlike prepa- 
rations, he should not be able to restrain the impetuosity 
of his people. Theodosius shewed no disposition to 
submit ; he peremptorily refused to yield up the refugees, 
and answered that he would abide the event of warfare, 
but that he would nevertheless send ambassadors to 
reconcile their differences, if possible. Thereupon 
Senator,* a man of consular dignity, was sent by the 
* Prisons, 2. j 2. 



AND HIS PREDECESSORS. 345 

emperor to treat with Attila ; he did not however 
venture to traverse the territory of the Huns even 
under the protection of the character of an ambassador, 
but sailed across the Euxine to Odessus, the modern 
Odessa, situated near Oczakow on its northern extremity, 
where the general Theodulus, who had been despatched 
on a like mission, was at that time abiding, without 
having succeeded in obtaining an audience. In what 
quarter Attila was then stationed, is not recorded, but 
he had probably advanced with his army, before the 
negociator reached his destination ; for on the receipt 
of the answer of Theodosius, being greatly incensed, he 
made an immediate and sanguinary irruption into the 
Roman dependencies, and, having taken several for- 
tresses, he overwhelmed Ratiaria, a city of great magni- 
tude and very populous, which stood near the site of 
Artzar, a little below Vidin on the Danube. He was 
accompanied by his brother on this inroad, and they 
laid waste * a great part of Illyria, demolishing Naissus, 
(Nissa) Singidunum, (Belgrade) and other flourishing 
towns. Seven years after, the sophist Priscus f on his 
embassy to the court of Attila, passed by the desolated 
site of Naissus, and saw the ruins of that exterminated 
town, and the country strewed with the bones of its 
inhabitants. 

§ 22. The succeeding campaign was ushered in by 
the appearance of a comet J of great magnitude, which 

* A.D. 441, Cyrus being consul, the Hunnish kings invaded Illyria, 
and took Naissus, Singidunum, &c. Marcellin. Chron. See also 
Priscus, 1. $ 2. t Priscus, 2. $ 3. 

X Marcellinus Chron. A.D. 442. Dioscoro et Eudox. toss, and Idatius 
Chron . 



346 ATTILA, 

added to the terror of the Hunnish arms, and a fatal 
pestilence # raged throughout Europe. The brothers 
renewed the ravage of Illyria, and stretched their vic- 
torious course to the extreme shores of Thrace. In 
this expedition only we hear of Persians f serving under 
Attila together with Saracens and Isaurians, but it is 
certain that no part of Persia was reduced under his 
dominion, though the Bactrian king of the Caucasean 
Paropamisus is said to have been amongst his military 
vassals. Arnegisclus J was entrusted by Theodosius 
with a great army to stop the progress of the invader, 
but he was completely routed on the shore § of the 
Chersonese ; the enemy approached within twenty miles 
of Constantinople, and almost all the cities of Thrace, 
except Adrianople and Heraclea,|| submitted to the 
conqueror. The army, which was quartered in % Sicily 
for the protection of the eastern provinces, was hastily 
recalled for the defence of Constantinople, and Aspar 
and Anatolius, masters of the forces, were sent to nego- 
ciate with the invaders, whose progress they had small 
hope of arresting in the field of battle. A treaty or 



* Idatius Chron. 

t Marcellinus. — Calanus also says that he was supported by almost 
the whole East. $ Sigonius de imp. occ. 

§ Priscus. — The battle is supposed to have been fought near Gallipoli 
at the northern mouth of the Dardanelles. Belius in his annotations 
seems to assert that it appears by the fifth book of Agathias that Bleda 
fought at the Chersonese, and at the same time Attila encountered 
Arnegisclus at Marcianople. No mention of the transaction is however 
discoverable in the fifth book of Agathias, and the suggestion seems 
to rest on no foundation. || Valesius. 

^f Prosper Aquitanicus, A.D. 442. 



HIS PREDECESSORS. 347 

rather a truce for a year * was concluded with the Huns 
.natolius, according to which the Romans consented 
to give up the fugitives, to pay 6000 pounds weight of 
gold for the arrears of tribute, and the future tribute 
was assessed at 2100 pounds of gold; twelve pieces of 
gold were to be the ransom of every Roman prisoner 
who had escaped from his chains, and on default of 
payment he was to be sent back to captivity. The 
Romans were also compelled to pledge themselves to 
admit no refugees from the dominions of the Huns 
within the limits of the empire. The ambassadors of 
Theodosius, too haughty to acknowledge the grievous 
necessity to which they were reduced, of accepting 
whatever terms the conqueror might think fit to impose, 
pretended to make all these concessions willingly ; but, 
through excessive dread of their adversaries, peace 
upon any conditions was their paramount object, and 
it was needful to submit to the imposition of such a 
heavy tribute, though the wealth not only of individuals, 
but of the public treasury, had been dissipated in unsea- 
sonable shows, in reprehensible canvassing for dignities, 
in luxurious and immoderate expenditure, which would 
not only have been misbecoming a prudent government 
in the most prosperous affluence, but was especially 
unfitting for those degenerate Romans, who, having 
neglected the discipline of war. had been tributary not 
only to the Huns, but to every barbarian that pressed 
upon the several frontiers of the empire. The emperor 
levied with the greatest rigour the taxes and assessments 



1 Prisons, "2. § 3. — Missi sunt contra hos Anatolius et Aspar maaistri 
militiae, pacemque cum his unius anni tecerunt— Marcellin. Chron. 



348 ATTILA, 

which were necessary to furnish the stipulated tribute 
to the Huns, and those even whose lands, on account of 
the destructive inroads of the barbarians, had been for 
a while discharged from the payment of taxes, either by 
a judicial decision, or by imperial indulgence, were 
compelled to contribute. The senators paid into the 
treasury the gold which was required from them beyond 
their means, and their eminent situation was the cause 
of ruin to many of them ; for those, who were appointed 
by the emperor to levy the rate, exacted it with insolence, 
so that many persons, who had been in affluent circum- 
stances, were forced to sell their furniture and the 
trinkets and apparel of the women. So grievous was 
the calamity of this peace to the Romans, that many 
hanged themselves in despair, or perished by voluntary 
starvation. The treasury being immediately emptied, 
the gold and the fugitives were sent to the Huns, Scottas 
having arrived at Constantinople from the court of 
Attila to receive them. Many however of the fugitives, 
who would not surrender to be delivered up to their 
inexorable countrymen, from whose hands they would 
have suffered a cruel and lingering death, were slain by 
the Romans to propitiate the enemy ; and amongst those 
were some of # the blood royal of Scythia, who, refusing 
to serve under Attila, had fled to the Romans. 

§ 23. Attila was not however contented with these 
severe exactions, but proceeded to summon the Azimun- 
thians to surrender the captives they had taken from the 
Huns and their allies, and the Roman refugees whom 



* Jornandes perhaps alludes in part to the massacre of these princes, 
when he accuses Attila of the destruction of all his relatives. 



AND HIS PREDECESSORS. 349 

they harboured, as well as those whom they had retaken 
from them. Azimus was a fortress of great strength, 
not far from the Illyrian frontier, but appertaining to 
Thrace The inhabitants of this formidable post had 
not only resisted the attacks of the Huns within their 
walls, so that no hopes were entertained of reducing 
them, but had successfully sallied out against the 
invaders, and discomfited in many rencounters the 
numerous forces and most expert commanders of the 
barbarians. Their scouts traversed the country in every 
direction, and brought them sure intelligence of every 
movement of the enemy; and, whenever the Azimun- 
thians received information that they were returning 
from an inroad laden with the plunder of the Romans, 
they concerted measures for intercepting their passage, 
and falling unexpectedly upon them, though few in 
number, by the most resolute and enterprizing valour, 
aided by a perfect knowledge of the intricacies of the 
country, they were usually successful, and not only 
slaughtered many of the Huns, but rescued the Roman 
prisoners and gave shelter to the deserters from the 
pagans. Attila therefore declared that he would not 
withdraw his army, nor consider the conditions of the 
treaty fulfilled, until the Azimunthians should have 
dismissed all their captives, and delivered up to him 
the Romans who were in the fort, or paid the stipulated 
ransom. Neither Anatolius by negociation, nor Theo- 
dulus by the array of the army which was entrusted to 
him for the protection of Thrace, could divert Attila 
from this determination, for he was enhardened by success, 
and ready in a moment to recommence his operations, 
while they were dejected and discouraged by the recent 



350 ATTILA, 

disaster. Letters were therefore sent to Azimus, requir- 
ing them to liberate their captives, and to send back 
the Romans who had been rescued, or twelve pieces 
of gold in lieu of each of them. The Azimunthians 
replied that they had suffered the Romans, who had 
fled to their protection, to depart at their pleasure, 
but that all the Scythian captives had been slain ; 
excepting two whom they retained, because the Huns, 
after having for a while besieged their fortress, had 
placed themselves in ambush, and carried off some 
children who were tending the flocks at a short dis- 
tance from the walls, and that, unless those were restored, 
they would not give up the captives they had made 
in war. Enquiries were instituted concerning these 
children, but they were not forthcoming, and, the Hun- 
nish kings having made oath that they had them not, 
the Azimunthians set free their captives, and swore 
likewise that the Romans had departed from amongst 
them ; but they swore falsely, the Romans being still 
in the fortress, while they held themselves absolved 
from the guilt of perjury by the countervailing merit 
of having saved their countrymen. It appears from 
this account, which is detailed by Priscus, that the 
Azimunthians were a hardy race in possession of an 
impregnable mountain hold, where they rendered a 
very qualified allegiance to the emperor, and probably 
closed their gates against his tax-gatherers. 

§ 24. About this period, probably in the campaign of 
442, Attila asserted that he had possessed himself of the 
ancient iron sword, which from the earliest recorded time 
had been the God of the Scythians. A herdsman, track- 
ing the blood of a heifer which had been wounded in the 



AND HIS PREDECESSORS. 351 

leg, was said to have discovered the mysterious * blade 
standing erect in the sod, as if it had been flung forth 
from heaven, and carried it to Attila, who received it as 

* Concerning the sword-god see in p. 66 the note to Attila, b 3. 
v. 507. The Greek name Candaon for the war-god and the sword itself 
is also written Candaor in Lycophron. In the latter form its derivation 
seems evident from canthos, the felloie of a wheel, and aor a sword, 
with reference to the cherubic sword that wheeled every way at the 
entrance of Eden, the blade being the spoke, the circle described by its 
point the felloie, of the wheel. It was pretended, though without the 
slightest probability, that this sword, which had been wielded by Attila, 
was in the possession of the Hungarian sovereigns several centuries 
after his death. The following statement is made by Lambertus Schaff- 
naburg (see Pistorii script, rer. Germ. Francf. 1613. torn. 1. p. 185.) 
A. D. 1070 the king in his progress reached Herveldia. On the next 
day he digressed to a place called Utenhusen to dine. There it hap- 
pened that one Leopold de Merspurg, a person much beloved by the 
king, to whom he was an habitual attendant and counsellor, fell from 
his horse, and died on the spot, being transfixed by his own sword. It 
was observed that this was the identical sword which Attila, the cele- 
brated king of the Huns, had formerly wielded to the death of Christians 
and devastation of Gaul. For the queen of the Hungarians, mother of 
their king Salomon, had given it to Otho duke of Bavaria, when the 
king at his instigation had reinstated her son in his paternal dominions. 
Otho had given it to Dedus the younger son of the marquis Dedus; 
when he was slain, it came by chance into the hands of the king, and 
from him into those of Leopold. On this account most of the partisans 
of duke Otho were of opinion that he was killed through a divine judg- 
ment by that sword which had belonged to Otho, because he was con- 
sidered to have been the person who had chiefly instigated the king to 
persecute him and banish him from the palace. He goes on to say that 
the sword had been originally found stained by the blood of a heifer, 
and was said by the augurs to have been destined for the destruction of 
the world. The king here mentioned seems to have been the emperor 
Henry the fourth. According to Abr. Bakschay Chron.reg. Hung. king- 
Salomon son of Andreas the first came to the throne of Hungary in 1065 
by the help of the emperor Henry. Concerning the sword of Attila see 
Priscus, Bonnge, 1829, p. 201. and Jornandes de reb. Get. c. 35. 



352 ATTILA, 

a fresh revelation of the sword of Ares or Areimanius 
which had been worshipped by the ancient Scythian 
kings, but had long disappeared from earth. He ac- 
cepted it as a sacred badge and evidence that the power 
of the spirit of war was committed to him, and a certain 
presage of the approaching universality of his dominion. 
The prevailing expectation of the advent of the Messiah, 
mankind being greatly ignorant of the true character of 
Him who was to come, had encouraged Octavius Caesar 
to assume the title of Augustus, and pretend to divine 
honours; and it was perhaps not merely the flattery of 
his courtiers, but the real opinion of those who expected 
a divine revelation at that period, that represented him 
as a present God. The sera of Attila was marked by a 
very general expectation of the revelation of Antichrist. 
It has been already mentioned that it was prophesied to 
Aetius in his youth that he was to be some great one ; by 
which expression is meant a divine incarnation. Sym- 
machus * in his panegyric of Gratian amongst his orations 
discovered and edited by Maius, stated about sixty-five 
years before that he heard the prophets of the Gentiles 
were whispering, that the man was already born, to whom 
it was necessary that the whole world should submit; 
that he believed the presage, and acknowledged the 
oracles of the enemy. There seems to have been a 
strong opinion entertained in Italy that the fortunes of 
Rome could only be upheld by making her the head of 
the barbarous nations and of all paganism, and in this 



* Audio jampridem fatidicos obmurmurare gentium vates, hactonus 
nomen stctisse barbaricum, jam genitum esse, jam crescere, cui necesse 
sit cum toto orbe servire. — Credo hostium responsis, credo praesagiis. 



AND HIS PREDECESSORS. 353 

spirit Symmachus had pleaded before Valentinian in 384 
against Christianity, and, as his oration is styled, on 
behalf of his sacred country. The great object of this 
party in Rome was to give a Roman ruler to the Gen- 
tiles, instead of receiving an emperor from them. With 
this view the traitor Stilicho, a nominal Christian,* edu- 
cated his son in paganism and the most bitter animosity 
against the Christians. When Radagais invaded Italy, 
the people looked to Stilicho for salvation, and it was 
carried by acclamation in Rome, that the neglected rites 
of their ancient Deities must be immediately renewed. 
After Honorius had cut short the traitor, dispersed his 
barbarian satellites, and driven into banishment his 
panegyrist the poet Claudian, who was a decided pagan, 
and probably died at the court of some heathen king, 
A'etius became the head of this party, with like views 
and deeper villainy. To him it had been prophesied 
that he was the great one whom the nations were expect- 
ing. His son Carpileo was sent to be educated amongst 
the heathens ; he had, by long residence both at the Gothic 
court of Alaric and amongst the Huns of Attila, fami- 
liarized himself with all the leading characters of Europe. 
The pious and eloquent Prudentius was too remote from 
these odious machinations to have suspected the sin- 
cerity of Stilicho, and saw in him only the saviour of the 
empire and defender of Christianity ; and it is probable 
that with like hypocrisy A'etius, whose wife was certainly 
a Christian, imposed on the credulity of Leo, who ap- 

* Jam a puero Christianorum persccutionem meditantem. — P(iu! 
Wtxme/Hd. 1. 18. p. 910. Eucherium filium swim paganum, et Chris- 
tianis insidias molientcm, cupiens Caesarem ordinare. — Jornandes dr 

regn. suec. 

■2 A 



354 ATTILA, 

pears to have highly regarded him ; which is the least 
creditable circumstance known concerning that pontiff. 
Exerting his great military talents no further than suited 
his hidden views, and balancing all the powers of Europe 
with the nicest artifice, that no one might obtain the 
universal dominion which he expected ultimately to 
snatch from them all, he proceeded steadily in his 
object, till Valentinian cut him short at the moment 
when the death of Attila had probably determined him 
to declare himself. The minds of all men both in the 
Roman empire, and amongst the heathen nations of 
Europe, being thus strongly tinctured with the expecta- 
tion of the revelation of a predestined and distinguished 
person, who was to establish a new and prevailing theo- 
cracy, the importance of assuming that character to 
himself could not escape the penetration of Attila ; and 
it is not impossible, that, educated as he was in the 
cradle of superstition, he may have believed that the 
great destinies to which he pretended were really await- 
ing him. We learn from Jornandes, who quotes the 
authority of Priscus, that he acquired very great in- 
fluence by the acquisition and production of the vene- 
rated sword. The title which he assumed is said to 
have been, # Attila, grandson or rather descendant of the 
great Nembroth or Nimrod, nurtured in Engaddi, by 
the grace of God king of Huns, Goths, Danes, and 
Medes, the dread of the world. He is represented on 
an old medallion f with teraphim or a head on his breast. 



* Nicolas Olaus. Calvisius Chron. Petrus dc Reva. 
t See the frontispiece to Attila di Dio flagello, evidently taken from 
an old medal. Belius dc vet. lit. Hunno-Scyth. gives a medal with a 



AND HIS PREDECESSORS. 355 

We know from the Hamartagenia of Prudentius that 
Nimrod with a snaky-haired head was the object of 
adoration of the heretical followers of Marcion, and the 
same head was the palladium set up by Antiochus 
Epiphanes over the gates of Antioch, though it has been 
called the visage of # Charon, The memory of Nimrod 
was certainly regarded with mystic veneration by many, 
and by asserting himself to be the heir of that mighty 
hunter before the Lord, he vindicated to himself at least 
the whole Babylonian kingdom. The singular assertion 
in his style that he was nurtured in Engaddi, where he 
certainly never had been, will be more easily understood 
on reference to the twelfth chapter of Revelation con- 
cerning the woman clothed with the sun, who was to 
bring forth in the wilderness, " where she hath a place 
" prepared of God," a man-child, who was to contend 
with the dragon having seven heads and ten horns, and 
rule all nations with a rod of iron. This prophecy f was 
at that time understood universally by the sincere Chris- 
tians to refer to the birth of Constantine who was to 



head not the least like Attila, and certainly not a Hunnish coin ; round 
it Attila rex ; a head on his shoulder and another on his hreast. 

* Prudentius calls the Head worshipped by Mansion both Nembrod, 
and Charon mundi. Laius (teletes kai mustikos kai teratoergates) 
made the prosopeion Charonion for Antiochus Epiphanes. Tzetz. Chil. 
Joh. Antioch. 

t " It is certain that the Christians in the time of Constantino 
" thought this prophecy to be so plainly fulfilled by the great event Of 
" Constantine's advancement to the throne of the empire, that this 
" emperor's statue was set over his palace gate, trampling on the 
" wounded dragon \ and Constantino himself in his epistle to Eusebius, 
" calls his conquest of Licinins, the falling of the dragon and the 
" restoration of Christian liberty to all." — Pyle, cited in Mont's Bible. 

2 A 2 



356 ATTILA, 

overthrow the paganism of the city on the seven hills, 
and it is still so explained : but it is evident that the 
heathens must have looked upon it in a different light, 
and have regarded it as a foretelling of the birth of that 
great one, who should master the temporal power of 
Rome. The assertion therefore that he was nurtured 
in Engaddi, is a claim to be looked upon as that man- 
child who was to be brought forth in a place prepared of 
God in the wilderness. Engaddi means a place of palms 
and vines in the desert ; it was hard by Zoar, the city of 
refuge, which was saved in the vale of Siddim or demons, 
when the rest were destroyed by fire and brimstone from 
the Lord in heaven, and might therefore be especially 
called a place prepared of God in the wilderness, like 
the garden of Amalthea, in which Bacchus was fabled to 
have been brought up. That such a title was either 
actually assumed by Attila, or given to him by those 
who favoured his pretensions, may be established by the 
total ignorance of the historians who have recorded it of 
its meaning, and the extraordinary fact being stated by 
them without any comment. Engaddi was also the seat 
of the Essenian cenobites, that remnant of the inhabitants 
of Sodom, who before the advent of our Saviour had 
set the example of the most profligate abominations 
under the mask of holiness and austerity ; and a fitter 
cradle could hardly have been devised for an Anti- 
christian adventurer. He was certainly not king over 
the Medes, but the title was probably assumed when he 
had been on the point of undertaking an expedition to 
reduce them, which Priscus ascertained to have been his 
intention, and would probably have been carried into 
execution, if his life had been prolonged. Notwith- 



AND HIS PREDECESSORS. 357 

standing the vague accounts of early Danish history, 
which have been put together from Scandinavian legends, 
the name of Danes appears to have been scarcely known 
before this period. Servius, whose commentary on Virgil 
had perhaps been then written a little more than twenty 
years, probably makes the first mention of the name,* 
saying that the Dahse, a people of Scythia adjoining to 
Persia on the north, were called also Dani. Picrius 
writes concerning the same passage, that the Dahae and 
Dacians were the same people. Jornandes a century 
after the time of Attila, first names the Danes in Den- 
mark, stating them to be a distinguished race of superior 
stature amongst the Codani, with whose name that of 
the south of the Baltic, called Sinus Codanus, is iden- 
tical. Procopius gives an account of the migration of 
the Herulians from the vicinity of the Danube through 
the tribes of the Danes into Thule, j- the modern Thyle- 
mark. Nicolas Olaus says that he found it stated in an 
old Hungarian chronicle that the Danes formerly inha- 
bited the region of Hungarian Dacia, and betook them- 
selves to the maritime parts of the north of Europe through 
fear of the Huns. If the Dacians who had migrated 
northwards bore at that time the name of Danes on the 
coast of the Baltic, they were not of sufficient importance 
in themselves to have merited such a particular mention 
in the title of the great monarch, unless because he 
actually occupied Dacia. It is however exceedingly 
probable that the particular mention of Danes, had re- 

* Virg. 2Ene\d. 8. 728. 
t Absurdly stated by Adam of Bremen and others to have been the 
island of Iceland, which was not inhabited or discovered till the ninth 
century. The error was afterwards pretty generally adopted. 



358 ATTILA, 

ference to the prevailing opinion that Antichrist was to 
be of the tribe of Dan, founded upon the prophecy of 
Jacob in the 49th chapter of Genesis, " Dan shall be a 
" serpent by the way, an adder in the path, that biteth 
" the horse's heels, so that his rider shall fall backward. I 
" have waited for thy salvation, O Lord," which last words 
seem to imply that the posterity of Dan would not await 
it, as Jacob had done, and from the circumstance of the 
tribe of Dan not being sealed in Revelation. We are 
informed by several writers that in the reign of Attila, a 
certain mysterious person, who is called * a second Moses 

* Gotofredus Viterbensis in his Pantheon, part 16. p. 375, gives the 
following account. " His diebus Attila Hunnorum rex occiso fratre 
suo Bleda Thraciam et Illyriam cepit vastare. Cui Theodosius datis 
7000 libris, promissis etiam singulis annis 1000 libris, a suis finibus exire 
persuasit. Ipse verd Theodosius . . . diem suum finivit an. imp. sui 
41, post mortem patrui sui 21. 

Sub specie Mosis loquitur nunc dsemon Hebrseis, 
Devote qui suscipitur satis ex Pharisseis, 

Qui dare dona Dei pristina spondet eis. 
Insula Creta fuit, cui prsedicat ille futura 
Omnia quse narrat, promittit eis valitura, 
Spondet eis patriam conciliare suam. 
' Per mare transite, sicco pede/ dixit, ' abite, 
' Atque Hierosolymam me prsegrediente redite, 

' Omnia quae scribi vultis, habetis ibi.' 
Quumque per sequoreos fluctus conducit Hebrceos 
Turba simul sequitur ; spes magna fovet Pharisseos ; 

Impetus sequoreus quum cito claudit eos. 
Parsque reservata, quam non maris obruit unda, 
Fit quoque Catholica, Christi baptismate munda; 
Csetera, quse periit, piscibus esca fuit. 
Anno 453 Martianus .... imperium sucepit adhuc regnante Valen- 

tiniano in occidente Martiano igitur et Valentiniano imperan- 

tibus, Attila rex Hunnorum in Macedonian!, &c- pervagatur." 

The following extract is from the Enneads of Sabellicus. " Mirum 



AND HIS PREDECESSORS. 



359 



in Crete, that is coming in the spirit of Moses, deceived 
the Jews in that island, pledging himself to lead them 
back through the sea with dry feet to the land of promise. 
Those who linked themselves together by the hair, and 
sprang off a cliff into the sea at his suggestion, all 
perished; a few were converted to Christianity and 
escaped. The Rabbis and rabbinists assure us that 
there cannot be a second Moses, coming in the power of 
Dan, unless his soul be an emanation of Cain the fratri- 
cide. Postel * states that the Moses in Crete was such 
an one as Antichrist. Werner Role wink in his fasciculus 

est, et ad exemplar vange superstitionis vitandse conducibile, quod 
seribunt quidam, Cselestini pontificatu in Creta insula cacodsemonem 
Mosis prophetarum vestustissinii personam incluisse, obversatumque 
ante oculos Judseorum qui in ea insula habitabant pollicitumque se 
sicco pede eos in terram promissionis redacturum stantibus utrinque 
aquis, ut in Rubro olim.'' He adds that all who yielded rashly to these 
illusions were drowned, save a few, who were converted. — Lib. 1. 
Ennead. 8. p. 323. ed. 1538. He then proceeds to describe the battle 
of Chalons, and speaks of " the authors whom he follows," but does not 
name the sources of his information. Sozomen who died two or three 
years before Attila, relates the circumstance in his Ecclesiastical history, 
stating that the Moses in Crete ordered all the Jews to jump off a cliff 
into the sea, having previously fastened themselves together by twisting 
the hair of their heads. It cannot therefore be doubted that some delu- 
sion was practised on the Jews in Crete, and with every allowance for 
exaggeration, the tale, circulated as it was at that period, shews the 
excitement which prevailed concerning the expected advent of some im- 
portant personage. 

* " Nullum enim sunt unquam habituri ducem prseter Antichristum, 
qui more Mahumedis conjunget opes et scelera omnium gentium sub 
authoritate et divinitatis prsetextu. Talis fuit uterque Barcoziba, et 
dux futurus in mari, dictus alter Moses in Creta." — Postell de orbis con- 
cordid, I. 2. p. 201. In another place he says " Barcozibas, . . . Julianum 
apostatem, . . . et falsum Mosem qui innumeros aquis in Creta lusit et 
mersit.'' — lb. L 4. p. 418. 



360 ATTILA, 

t&mporum makes the second Moses synchronize with 
Patric's voyage to Ireland. Father Colgan, in his Trias 
thaumaturge, says that the magic wand, which was 
transmitted by Adam and Nimrod to Moses, passed into 
the hands of Jesus Christ, and from him was transmitted 
to Patric ; who spent forty days and forty nights in a 
mountain, fasting and conversing with God, saw God in 
a burning bush, and died at the same age as Moses, (viz. 
120) and his eye was not dim, nor his natural strength 
abated; and from these and other coincidences, he is 
called the second Moses. St. Patric is also said to have 
summoned all the serpents and venomous creatures to 
the top of a mountain over the sea and bade them jump 
down, and they were all drowned. It cannot be over- 
looked on reading the several passages relating to the 
second Moses, that the story appears to have a more 
intimate connexion with the affairs of Attila, than is 
stated on the face of any one of the extracts ; for the 
writers proceed immediately from the narration of Attila's 
acts to this strange account, and again from it to Attila's 
invasion of Gaul. Whether such a man as Patric 
actually existed, and was sent on a secret mission by 
Attila to prepare the way for himself as Antichrist, as 
we read in the Scandinavian sagas that Attila sent Her- 
burt on a mission to king Arthur in Great Britain, or 
whether Patric was merely a fictitious name used by those 
in Ireland, who looked to the coming of Attila as Anti- 
christ, to represent his power and his kingdom, it may be 
difficult to determine ; but the Cretan tale seems to be 
connected with the legend of St. Patric, and that legend 
to have reference to the expectation that Attila would 
establish an universal antichristian dominion. When we 



AND HIS PREDECESSORS. 361 

are told that a person deceived the Jews with the expec- 
tation of leading them back to the land of promise, 
coming as a second Moses, and such an one as Anti- 
christ, that no second Moses could come in the power of 
Dan, except an emanation from the soul of Cain the 
fratricide; that Attila affected particularly the title of 
king of the Danes, and that he did murder his brother 
like CLin, and attempt to establish an antichristian 
universal empire, we have some reason to conclude that 
Attila did pretend to come in the power of Dan, and in 
the spirit of Moses as a lawgiver. 

§ 25. Having thus arrayed himself with superhuman 
pretensions, as predestined to overthrow that empire, 
which, in compliance with the predictions of the Sibyl, 
Romulus was said to have consecrated * with the blood 
of Remus, Attila proceeded soon after f to murder his 
brother Bleda. The exact mode of his death is not 
known ; he is said to have been slain and cast into the 
Danube ; according to one account a dispute arose con- 
cerning the name to be given to the new town of Sicam- 
bria, which either brother wished to call after his own, 
and the modern Buda is said to be a version of the 
name Bleda. The tradition of the twelve birds seen by 
Romulus and the six seen by Remus, bears a strong 
appearance of having been founded on some true pro- 
phecy concerning the duration of the ever memorable 
Roman empire, and it is very remarkable that Attila 
murdered his brother Bleda, and may be supposed to 



tremulse coi'tina Sibylla? 



Dixit Aventino rura pianda Remo. — Propertius. 
+ A.D. 445. 



362 ATTILA, 

have consecrated by his blood the new city of Sicambria, 
which he intended to make the seat of a new empire to 
supersede that of Rome, exactly twelve centuries after 
the alleged revelation of the twelve birds to Romulus ; 
755 being the years of Rome before Christ, and 445 
after Christ, the date of the murder of Bleda, making 
exactly twelve centuries from his death to that of 
Remus. If we add six single years for the six birds of 
Remus, it brings us to the year 452 on which Attila, 
master of nearly all Italy, was expected to enter Rome ; 
if instead of six single years we add six lustra or periods 
of five years by which the Romans were wont to number 
the lapse of time, it brings us precisely to the year 476 
in which the Roman empire was finally extinguished 
by Odoacer. It is not easy to believe that such won- 
derful coincidences are accidental, especially when we 
recollect that this is not a subsequent interpretation of 
the augury, built upon the events that actually took 
place, but it had been thus explained in the oldest times; 
and, as the period drew near, the most learned men, 
both heathen and Christian, were looking for its accom- 
plishment, and it is not unlikely that Attila used for his 
ensign a vulture bearing a golden crown with reference 
to the birds of Romulus. Varro, as cited by # Censorinus, 
had written that he had heard Vettius a distinguished 
augur and a man of great genius and learning say, that 
if the facts related by historians concerning the founda- 
tion of the city by Romulus and the twelve vultures were 



* De die natali, c. 17. Censorinus lived above two hundred years 
before this period, but Varro whom he quotes lived when Rome was 
in the height of her power. \ 



AND HIS PREDECESSORS. 363 

true, the Roman state would endure twelve hundred 
years, since it had already survived the 120th year. 
The pagan poet Claudian * who was cotemporary with 
and involved in the ruin of Stilicho, had stated that the 
people dreading the invasion of the Goths counted the 
years numbered by the twelve vultures, and from the ex- 
piration of the twelfth century anticipated the overthrow 
of Rome. Sidonius Apollinaris bishop of Clermont, who 
wrote a few years after the death of Attila alluded f in 
two passages to the fate prognosticated to Rome by the 
twelve vultures. It is therefore quite certain that Attila 
must have been aware of this prediction, and of the inter- 
pretation which was given to it by Christians and pagans 
at this period, and had been handed down from remote 
antiquity; and it is as certain that such a circumstance 
must have had great weight with a man attempting to 
establish an empire which was to supersede that of Rome, 
and to be built in like manner upon the worship of the 
sword-god Mars; and it can scarcely be doubted that 
this prediction and a consideration of the received his- 
tory of Romulus had its share in exciting him to murder 
his brother Bleda. Aiming at the establishment of uni- 
versal dominion by the influence of superstition and 
religious awe, as well as by the force of arms, he could 
no more have overlooked the fact, that the twelve cen- 

* Claudianus de bello Getieo, v. 265, et antecedentibus. 
Tunc reputant annos, interceptoque volatu 
Vulturis, incidunt properatis ssecula metis, 
t Quid, rogo, bis seno mibi vulture Thuscus aruspex 
Portendit? — Carm. 7. v. 55 — and afterwards 
Jam prope fata tui bis senas vulturis alas 
Complebunt; scis namque tuos, scis, Roma, laborcs. — lb. v. 363. 



364 ATTILA, 

turies of Romulus were actually expiring in the year 
when he followed his fratricidal # example, than it had 
escaped the flatterers of Augustus that in his time the 
seventy weeks of Daniel were expiring amidst the intense 
expectation of the nations. 

§ 26. The same year that witnessed the elevation of 
Attila to the sole power amongst the Huns by the 
removal of his brother, brought a fresh attack f upon 
the Eastern empire, though neither the causes which 
led to the renewal of hostilities, nor the events of the 
campaign have been handed down to posterity. After a 
pause of one year, probably obtained by fresh concessions 
from Theodosius, the war was renewed on a greater 
scale than ever in 447. The forces of the Western 
empire afforded no assistance to their Eastern brethren, 
and not less than J seventy cities were taken and ravaged 
by the Huns. It was a fierce contest, and greater § 
than the former wars of the Huns ; the castles and towns 
of a large tract of Europe were levelled to the ground. 
Arnegisclus made a memorable stand against Attila and 
fought valiantly, but fell in the battle, and the total 
discomfiture of his army left the whole of Thrace at 
the mercy of the conqueror. In this campaign the 
celebrated || Arderic king of the Gepidae distinguished 



* Cardinal Desericius has not scrupled to employ a long passage of 
his voluminous work in attempting to justify or palliate Attila's murder 
of his brother by the example of other villains to whom the world h s 
given birth. 

t A. D. 445. Thracia Hunnorum incursione concutitur. Prosp. Tyro, 
who postpones the murder of Bleda to the following year. 

t Prosper Tyro, A. D. 447. § Marcellin. Chronic. A. D. 447. 

|| Jornandes de regni succ. 



AND HIS PREDECESSORS. 365 

himself under Attila, who was supported by the Ostro- 
goths and a portion of the Alans, and various other 
nations serving under their respective kings. The whole 
extent south of the Danube, from Illyria to the Black 
Sea, was ravaged by the Huns, whose army swept a 
breadth of five days journey as they advanced. Jor- 
nandes # says that Arnegisclus fell at Marcianopolis, 
close to Varna near the shores of the Black sea. Mar- 
cellinus says the conflict took place on the banks of the 
Utus, which flows into the Danube a little to the east 
of Sophia, a place very far in the rear of Attila's ad- 
vanced position, which Marcellinus himself states to have 
been at Thermopolis, supposed to mean Thermopylae. 
The probability is therefore, that the battle was fought 
near Marcianopolis. If it was fought near the Utus, 
Attila must have pursued his uninterrupted course after- 
wards through f Macedonia and Thessaly. Theodosius 
in this dilemma attempted to tamper with the kings 
under Attila, and excited against him the princes of 
the Acatzires on the northern side of the Euxine. 
Attila { is said to have been alarmed at this intelligence, 
and to have been fearful that the territory which he had 
ravaged to the south of the river, would be unable to 
support his immense army, and was induced by pruden- 
tial motives to listen to the negociators of Theodosius. 
The immediate danger to the empire was averted by 
the conclusion of a truce, and Attila now turned his 

* Jornandes de rcgni succ. — Blondus (Hist. Dee. 1. 1. 2.) says that 
Arnegisclus first defeated Attila at Marcianopolis, but pushing on 
rashly was surrounded, and killed, but he does not quote the source 
from which this information is derived. 

1 Freculphus Chron. t. 2. 1 5. J Blondus Hist. 



366 ATTILA, 

arms against the Acatzires,* a Hunnish race dwelling 
on the borders of the Black sea, who were governed by 
a number of petty kings. Theodosius had offered them 
bribes, to induce them to withdraw from confederation 
with Attila. The messenger however, who was charged 
with the imperial presents, did not distribute them ac- 
cording to the estimated rank of the several princes, 
so that Curidach who was the senior king, received only 
the second present. Incensed at this, and considering 
himself to have been slighted and deprived of his due, 
he called in the aid of Attila against the other princes 
of the Acatzires. Attila without loss of time, sent a 
considerable force against them, slew some, and reduced 
the rest to subjection. He then invited Curidach to 
partake in the fruits of the victory, but he, suspecting 
some design against his person, and adroitly adapting 
his flattery to the pretensions which Attila had lately 
advanced, on the production of the divine sword, made 
answer, that it was a formidable thing for a man to come 
into the presence of a God ; for if no one could stedfastly 
behold the face of the sun, how should he without injury 
look upon the greatest of divinities. By these means, 
Curidach retained his sovereignty, while the power of 
the rest was yielded up to the Hun. 

§ 27. Attila f now sent ambassadors to Constantinople, 
to redemand the fugitives from his territory. He seems 
to have been at all times particularly irritable concerning 
those who withdrew themselves from subjection to his 
authority by flight to the Christians, and the certainty 
of their execution, if recaptured, rendered their protec- 

* Priscus, Bounce, 1829. p. 197. t Priscus, 1. §4. 



AND HIS PREDECESSORS. 367 

tors very unwilling to surrender them. On this occasion 
his legates were received with great courtesy, and 
loaded with presents, but they were dismissed w T ith 
assurances that there were no refugees at Constantinople. 
Four successive embassies were despatched to Theodo- 
sius, and enriched by the liberality of the Romans ; for 
Attila, aware of the gifts by which his ambassadors were 
conciliated through fear of an abrupt infringement of 
the truce, whenever he wished to confer a benefit upon 
any of his favorites or dependants, found some excuse 
for sending them on a mission to enrich themselves. 
The Romans obeyed him as their lord and master, and 
submitted to all his demands, not only dreading the 
renewal of hostilities by the Huns, but harassed by the 
warlike preparations of the Parthians, the maritime 
attacks of the Vandals in the Mediterranean, the inroads 
of the Isauri, and the repeated incursions of the Saracens 
who laid w T aste the eastern parts of the empire. They 
humbled themselves therefore towards Attila, and tem- 
porized with him, while they were preparing to make 
head against their other enemies, and levied troops, and 
made choice of generals to oppose them. 

§ 28. In the following * year (A.D. 448.) Edecon, 
who is called a Scythian, a man highly distinguished by 
his military exploits, was sent to Constantinople by Attila, 
together with Orestes, who was of Roman extraction, 
dwelling in Paeonia near the Savus, which had been 
ceded to Attila by a treaty concluded with Aetius the 
commander of the forces of the Western empire. Edecon 
proceeded to the imperial palace, and delivered the 

* Priscus, \. § 5. 



368 ATTILA, 

letters of Attila, in which he reiterated his complaints 
touching the fugitives, and threatened that he would 
have recourse to arms again, unless they were delivered 
up to him and the Romans desisted from ploughing 
the lands which he had lately wrested from them, or at 
least overrun. The territory which he claimed extended 
on the southern bank of the Danube, from Pseonia to 
the Thracian Novae, with a breadth of five days journey 
for an active man ; and he forbad the Illyrian fair being 
held as heretofore on the banks of the Danube, but in 
Naissus which he had utterly destroyed, and now ap- 
pointed to be the boundary between his states and the 
Romans. He demanded that the most distinguished 
men of consular dignity should be sent to his court to 
arrange all matters in dispute, and threatened, that if 
they should delay, he would advance to Sardica. The 
letter having been read, Edecon delivered the message 
of his sovereign through the interpretation of Bigilas, 
and withdrew with him through another quarter of the 
royal palace, to visit Chrysaphius the shield-bearer of 
the emperor, who had then much influence. Edecon 
expressed great admiration at the splendour of the impe- 
rial residence, and, when they reached the apartment 
of Chrysaphius, Bigilas interpreted to him the words 
in which the Scythian had stated that he admired the 
magnificence and envied the wealth of the Romans. 
The eunuch seized this opportunity to tamper with the 
fidelity of the barbarian, and told him that he should 
enjoy like opulence and dwell under ceilings of gold, if 
he would exchange the party of the Scythians for that 
of the Romans. Edecon replied that it was not lawful 
for the servant of another master to do this without the 



AND HIS PREDECESSORS. 369 

permission of his lord ; whereupon the insidious eunuch 
asked him if he had free access to Attila, and influence 
in the Hunnish court. Edecon replied that he was a 
confidential attendant, and took his turn with other 
chosen and distinguished individuals to watch in arms 
over his safety upon the days allotted to him. Thereupon 
Chrysaphius said, that if he would pledge himself to the 
Romans, he would promise him great advantages; but 
that leisure was necessary to make arrangements, for 
which purpose he proposed to him to return to supper 
without Orestes and the rest of the embassy. Edecon 
having undertaken to do so, and having returned ac- 
cording to agreement, Bigilas acting as interpreter 
between them, they pledged their right hands and swore, 
the one that he would speak of things the most advan- 
tageous to Edecon, the other that he would not reveal 
their discourse, whether he might assent to the proposals 
or not. The eunuch, satisfied with this promise, pro- 
ceeded to assure the Scythian that if on his return he 
would murder Attila and make his escape to the Romans 
he should enjoy great wealth and luxury. Edecon 
assented, but stated that money would be necessary to 
distribute amongst the soldiers under him, that they 
might assist him without reluctance, for which purpose 
he required fifty pounds weight of gold. Chrysaphius 
would have disbursed the money immediately, but 
Edecon represented the necessity of his returning first 
to render an account of his embassy, and of his being 
accompanied by Bigilas who might bring Attila's answer 
concerning the refugees, and at the same time a com- 
munication from himself to state when and how the 
gold might be remitted to him ; for that Attila would 

•2 13 



370 ATTILA, 

question him closely according to his custom, what gifts 
and how much money he had obtained from the Romans; 
nor should he be able to conceal the truth easily, on 
account of the numbers who were with him. Chry- 
saphius assented to this, and when his guest had with- 
drawn, he proceeded to disclose the treacherous scheme 
to the emperor, who immediately sent for Martialius, 
the master or warden of the palace, to whom by virtue 
of his office all the counsels of the emperor were ne- 
cessarily confided, as he had the superintendence of the 
letter-carriers, the interpreters, and the soldiers who 
kept guard in the palace. It seemed good # to the em- 
peror and these his advisers to send Maximin with 
Bigilas, under the existing circumstances, to the court 
of Attila : that Bigilas in the character of interpreter 
should obey the instructions he might receive from 
Edecon, but that Maximin should have charge to deliver 
the letter of the emperor, remaining entirely ignorant 
of the infamous conspiracy which was to be carried on 
under the cover of his mission. Theodosius wrote in 
the credentials of the ambassadors that Bigilas was the 
interpreter, but that Maximin was a man of much 
greater distinction and very much in his confidence. 
He exhorted Attila not to infringe the treaty, inasmuch 
as he then sent to him seventeen refugees in addition 
to those who had been already delivered up, and assured 
him that there were no more in his dominions. Maximin 
was instructed to use his endeavours to persuade Attila 
not to require an ambassador of higher rank, as it had 
been customary for his ancestors and the other kings of 



Priscus, 2. § 3. 



AND HIS PREDECESSORS. 371 

Scythia, to receive any military or civil envoy; and 
suggest the expediency of his sending Onegesius to 
arrange the matters which were under discussion ; and 
represent the impracticability of Attila's conferring with 
a man of consular dignity at Sardica which had been 
demolished by the Huns. Maximin persuaded the sophist 
and historian Priscus to accompany him on this expedi- 
tion ; and if the eight books which he afterwards wrote 
had not unfortunately perished, those extracts only being 
preserved which relate to the embassies, we should net 
have to lament the insufficiency of our materials for 
some parts of the history of Attila. They set forth 
therefore in company with the barbarians, and proceeded 
to Sardica, thirteen days journey from Constantinople. 
Here they tarried, and thought it advisable to invite 
Edecon and his companions to take their meal with 
them. The natives furnished them with sheep and 
oxen, which they slaughtered and prepared for their 
repast. During the banquet the barbarians exalted 
the name of Attila, and the Greeks that of the emperor, 
whereupon Bigilas said that it was not just to compare 
a God with a man, intimating thereby that Theodosius 
was the divinity and Attila a human potentate. The 
guests took great offence at the insinuation, and grew 
very warm on the subject, but the ambassadors exerted 
themselves to change the subject and pacify them, and 
after the supper Maximin presented Edecon and Orestes 
with silken apparel and oriental jew r els. Orestes out- 
staid Edecon, and observed after his departure to Maxi- 
min, that he acted well and wisely in not imitating the 
conduct of those about the emperor ; for some had 
invited to supper Edecon alone, and had loaded him 

•2 JJ 2 



372 ATTILA, 

with gifts ; but the ambassadors, not being aware of the 
circumstance to which he alluded, asked him in what 
respect he had been neglected and Edecon honoured, to 
which he made no reply, but withdrew. The subject 
being discussed in conversation the next day, Bigilas 
observed that Orestes ought not to have expected to 
receive the same honours as Edecon, inasmuch as Orestes 
was the follower and scribe of Attila, but Edecon was 
very distinguished in warfare, and being of Hunnish 
blood was in higher estimation ; after which he addressed 
Edecon in his own language, and subsequently informed 
the ambassadors, that he had told him what had been 
said by Orestes, and with difficulty had allayed his anger 
on the subject, but the historian does not rely implicitly 
on the veracity of the interpretation. Arriving at Naissus 
five days journey from the Danube, they found it demo- 
lished by the Huns, but some sick persons were abiding 
in the ruins of the temples. The party sought for a 
clear place to unyoke their beasts of burden, for the 
whole bank of the river was strewn with the bones of 
those who had fallen in the war ; an incident which fur- 
nishes a horrible picture of the desolating atrocity of 
Hunnish warfare, by which the whole population of a 
distinguished town had been exterminated, and as yet 
after the lapse of several years, there had been none to 
bury their remains. On the following day they visited 
Agintheus who commanded the forces in Illyria, and 
had his quarters not far from Naissus, that they might 
deliver to him the injunctions of the emperor, and re- 
ceive from his hands five refugees who were to make up 
the complement of seventeen, concerning whom he had 
written to Attila, and who were to be delivered up to his 



AND HIS PREDECESSORS. 373 

relentless indignation. Agintheus, as he was ordered, sur- 
rendered the ill-fated fugitives, softening the harshness of 
the act towards them by the expression of his unavailing 
regret. 

§ '29. On the succeeding day they continued their 
journey from the mountains of Naissus towards the 
Danube, passing through some woody and circuitous 
defiles, so that those who were unacquainted with the 
country and imagined they were travelling westward, 
were astonished in the morning at seeing the sun rise 
opposite to them, and fancied it was a prodigy portending 
the subversion of all established order, till it was ex- 
plained to them that on account of natural impediments, 
that part of the road was necessarily turned towards the 
east. From the mountainous passes they issued into a 
level and woody district, where barbarian ferrymen re- 
ceived the whole party into canoes which they had 
themselves scooped out of solid stems, and conveyed 
them across the Danube. It seems that they had travelled 
night and day, excepting when they halted at Sardica, 
at Naissus, and after the interview with Agintheus. 
The boats had not been prepared for the ambassadors, 
but to ferry over the river a multitude of Attila's people, 
whom they met on the way, for Attila had made a pre- 
tence of desiring to hunt in the territories wrested from 
the Romans, though in fact it was a preparation for war, 
which he meditated under the pretext that all the 
refugees had not been delivered up to him. Having 
crossed the Danube, and proceeded about 70 stadia or a 
little more than eight English miles, they were made to 
halt on a plain, while the attendants of Edecon carried 
the news of their arrival to Attila. In the evening, while 



374 ATTILA, 

they were at supper, two Scythians arrived at their 
quarters, and ordered them to proceed to Attila, but 
having been requested to alight from their horses, they 
partook of the meal, and on the following morning 
served as their conductors. About the ninth hour of the 
day they reached the numerous tents of Attila, and 
being about to pitch their own on a knoll, the bar- 
barians forbad it, because those of Attila were on the 
level ground. The Romans having therefore established 
themselves where they were directed, Edecon, Orestes, 
Scottas, and others of the principal men, intruded them- 
selves, and began to make enquiries into the objects of 
the embassy. At first the Romans looked at each 
other with surprise and gave no answer to the unbe- 
coming questions, but the barbarians were troublesome 
and urgent in the enquiries, whereupon they were told 
that the message of the emperor was unto Attila, and 
no other person. Scottas answered angrily that they 
were sent by their leader to make this enquiry, and 
had not come to gratify their own curiosity. The 
Romans represented that it was nowhere customary for 
ambassadors without entering into the presence of the 
person to whom they had been sent to be called upon 
to declare the objects of their mission through the in- 
tervention of other persons ; that the Scythians who 
had been on missions to the emperor well knew this, 
and that, unless admitted into the presence, as the am- 
bassadors of Attila had always been, they would not 
communicate their instructions. The messengers of Attila 
returned to him, and soon after coming back without 
Edecon, declared to the Romans all the particulars 
concerning which they were sent to treat by the emperor, 



AND HIS PREDECESSORS. 375 

and ordered them, if they had nothing further to com- 
municate, to take their departure as speedily as pos- 
sible. The Romans were amazed, and, being unable 
to conjecture through what channel the secrets of the 
emperor had been divulged, thought it prudent to de- 
cline giving any answer, unless admitted to the royal 
presence ; whereupon they were ordered to depart in- 
stantly. While they were preparing for the journey, 
Bigilas blamed them for the answer they had given, 
saying that it would be better to be detected in a 
falsehood, than to return without accomplishing their 
purpose ; and asserted that if he could have come to 
the sight of Attila, he should easily have persuaded him 
to recede from his dispute with the Romans, having 
become well acquainted with him, when he had ac- 
companied the mission of Anatolius; whence Edecon 
was also well disposed towards him ; so that, under pre- 
text of the embassy, by speaking truth or falsehood, 
as occasion might require, they might complete the 
arrangements touching the conspiracy against Attila, and 
the transmission of the gold which Edecon had stated 
to be necessary, that it might be divided amongst the 
satellites: but he little suspected, that he had been be- 
trayed, for Edecon, whether his promises, as is most 
probable, had been deceitful from the first, or he had 
taken alarm, lest Orestes, indignant at what had passed 
at Sardica, should report to Attila that he had had 
separate and private conferences with the emperor and 
Chrysaphius, had divulged the whole conspiracy to the 
Hun, both the quota of gold that had been required, 
and the points concerning which the Romans had been 
instructed to negociate. The orders of Attila had been 



376 ATTILA, 

peremptory, and although it was night, the ambassadors, 
hungry and cold, were under the necessity of making 
ready for their departure, when a second message from 
the great king enjoined them to tarry till a more season- 
able hour ; and at the same time he sent them an ox 
and some river fish, on which they supped and retired to 
rest, hoping that he might be more favourably disposed 
on the morrow ; but in the morning the same messengers 
returned, ordering them to depart, if they had nothing 
else to communicate. They prepared therefore once 
more for the journey, notwithstanding the earnest sug- 
gestion of Bigilas, that they should answer that they had 
other things to set forth. The historian Priscus, through 
friendship to Maximin, who appeared very much de- 
jected at the disgraceful issue of his mission, taking with 
him Rusticius, * who understood the Hunnish language, 
for an interpreter, went to Scottas, and promised him 
ample presents from Maximin, if he would obtain for 
him an interview with Attila; assuring him that the 
subject matter of the embassy was not only important to 
the two nations, but personally to his brother Onegesius 
who was then absent from the court ; and he adroitly 
added, that he understood he had great weight with 
Attila, but that he should better know how to estimate 
his importance, if he could prevail in this point. Scottas 
replied, that he had quite as much influence as One- 
gesius, and would prove it ; and he mounted his horse 
immediately, and rode to the tent of the monarch. 
Priscus returning to Maximin found him and Bigilas 

* Rusticius had accompanied them on private affairs to see Constan- 
tius, whom Aiitius had recommended as secretary to Attila, and probably 
designed for a spy into his counsels. 



AND HIS PREDECESSORS. 377 

lying on the grass, and, having declared what he had 
done, and recommended to Maximin to look out the 
gifts for Scottas and consider what he should say to 
Attila, was much applauded, and those amongst the 
retinue, who were actually starting, were called back, 
and their departure was suspended till the result of the 
application of Scottas should be known. While they 
were thus employed, they were summoned by Scottas to 
the presence of Attila. Entering they beheld the 
monarch seated on a wooden throne, and guarded by a 
numerous circle of barbarians. Maximin alone ap- 
proaching saluted him, while the rest of the Romans 
stood aloof; and, having delivered the letter of Theo- 
dosius, he said that the emperor prayed for the health 
and prosperity of him and his people. Attila answered, 
" May it be to the Romans, as they wish to me," and 
immediately turning his discourse to Bigilas, he called 
him a shameless beast, and asked how he presumed to 
come before him, knowing what terms of peace had 
been concluded between himself and Anatolius, and 
that no ambassadors should have been sent to him before 
all the refugees had been delivered up. Bigilas having 
replied, that there was no refugee of Scythian blood 
remaining in the empire, for that all had been given up, 
he waxed more angry, and exclaimed with loudness and 
violence, that he would crucify him, and give him for 
food to the birds, if he were not scrupulous of infringing 
the laws concerning ambassadors by awarding to him the 
just punishment of his impudence, and the rashness of 
his speech; for that many refugees were still amongst 
the Romans, whose names he ordered the secretaries to 
read from a tablet. After that had been performed, he 



378 ATTILA, 

commanded him to depart immediately, and Eslas to 
accompany him and bear a message to the Romans, that 
every fugitive, since the time when Carpileo the son of 
Aetius had been sent to Attila as a hostage from the 
Western empire, must be forthwith delivered up ; inas- 
much as he would not suffer his own servants to bear 
arms against him, however little they could avail for the 
protection of the Romans: " for," he added, using nearly 
the language of Sennacherib, " which of all the cities or 
" fortresses that I have thought fit to capture, has been 
" successfully defended against me?" He further di- 
rected them after having delivered his message concerning 
the fugitives, to return and inform him whether the 
Romans chose to surrender them, or to await the war 
which he should wage against them; but he commanded 
Maximin to stay for his answer to the letter of Theo- 
dosius, and enquired for the presents of the emperor, 
which were given to him. The ambassadors retired to 
their tents, where Bigilas expressed his surprise at the 
violent demeanour of Attila towards him, who had been 
formerly received with so much gentleness. The Romans 
imagined that the conversation at Sardica, in which 
Bigilas had called him a mortal and Theodosius a 
divinity, must have been related to him by some of the 
guests, who were present at that banquet; but Bigilas, 
who had intimate acquaintance with the Hunnish court, 
would not credit the suggestion, saying that no one ex- 
cepting Edecon would dare to enter into discourse with 
him on such matters, and that he would undoubtedly be 
silent, not merely on occount of his oath, but through 
fear that he might be condemned to death for having 
been present at, and lent himself to, secret counsels 



AND HIS PREDECESSORS. 379 

against the life of his sovereign. While these matters 
were under discussion, Edecon returned, and, drawing 
Bigilas aside, renewed the subject of the gold which he 
required for distribution, and, after giving directions 
concerning its payment, he withdrew. Priscus, the friend 
of Maximin, who was kept in ignorance of the atrocious 
conspiracy, having enquired into the subject of that con- 
versation, Bigilas who was himself deceived by Edecon, 
eluded the enquiry by saying that Edecon had com- 
plained that he was brought into trouble on account of 
the detention of the fugitives, and that all of them should 
have been delivered up, or ambassadors of the highest 
dignity sent for the purpose of pacifying Attila. A 
further command was presently issued by the monarch, 
that neither Bigilas nor any of the Romans should buy 
any Roman captive or barbarian slave, or any horse or 
other article except necessary provender, until the dif- 
ferences should be adjusted; and this he did with sub- 
tlety, that Bigilas might have no excuse for bringing 
the gold which was promised to Edecon; and, under 
pretence of writing an answer to Theodosius, he required 
the Romans to await the return home of Onegesius, 
that they might deliver to him the presents sent by the 
emperor. Onegesius was at that time absent, having 
been sent to establish the eldest son of Attila and Creca 
on the throne of the Acatzires, whose reduction has been 
already mentioned. Bigilas was therefore despatched 
alone with Eslas to bring back the answer concerning 
the refugees, but in truth to afford him an opportunity 
of fetching the gold, and the rest were detained in their 
tents, but after one day's interval they were made to pro- 
ceed together with Attila towards the north of Hungary. 



380 ATTILA, 

§ 30. The ambassadors had not travelled far in the 
suite of the Hunnish monarch, when their conductors 
directed them to follow a different road, for Attila 
thought fit to tarry in a certain hamlet, where he had 
determined to add his daughter Eskam to the number 
of his wives. We are informed by Priscus that this 
marriage was conformable to the law of the Scythians. 
His expression is somewhat remarkable, and literally 
rendered is, " where he purposed to marry daughter 
" Eskam, having indeed many wives, but espousing this 
" one also according to Scythian law." Some writers 
have taken occasion from this passage to assert that 
there was no prohibition amongst the Huns to any 
marriage, however repugnant to propriety on account of 
relationship, and St. Jerome has made a similar decla- 
ration, probably with no better foundation, concerning 
the Persians, amongst whom incest was no more ge- 
nerally permitted, than polygamy was amongst the Jews. 
The instances of two wives recorded in the case of 
Lamech, and of Jacob,* and Elkanah, are evidently 
particular cases departing from the established practice, 
and the permission given to the kings of the Jews to 
possess many wives and concubines, was the consequence 
of the Lord's having conceded to the Jews, as a punish- 
ment for their perverse entreaties, " a + king over them, 
" that they might be like all the nations ;'* a king there- 
fore having all the privileges enjoyed by the adjoining 
potentates, namely that they could do no wrong and 
might take any number of wives, however nearly related 

* Verse 18. c. 18. of Leviticus seems to have been written expressly 
to prevent the example of Jacob being used as a precedent. 
t 1 Sam. xix. 



AND HIS PREDECESSORS. 381 

to them in blood, notwithstanding the prohibition that 
had been given prospectively concerning them, that they 
should not * multiply their wives, a prohibition which 
was certainly respected by the generality of the Jews. 
The words of Priscus do not imply that either polygamy 
or incest were lawful to all the Huns, but that it was 
lawful to Attila, as it had been to Cambyses, on account 
of his prerogative. The Hungarian writers, indignant 
at the reproaches cast on the morals of their supposed 
ancestors on this occasion, have attempted to make it 
appear that the lady espoused by Attila was not his child, 
but the daughter of a man named Eskam, considering 
the undeclined name Eskam to be a genitive case, and 
rendering the preceding word the daughter of instead of 
his daughter. On a careful consideration of the con- 
struction of sentences in the Greek written by Priscus 
and others of that period, it will be apparent that the 
words f cannot mean to marry the daughter of Eskam. 

* Deut. xvii. 17. 
t Vctfjielv Svyarkpa 'Eatcd/x. Priscus would have expressed to marry 
the daughter of Esham, by either ya/ieiv 'Eo-Kcifi Bvyarspa, or Trjv tov 
'EffKctfx Srvyarepa, or simply ya/xtXv ttjv tov Ecr/ca/z. The genitive, ac- 
cording to the Greek used by Priscus, could not be put without an article 
after its governing substantive, unless where the article could not be 
prefixed without altering the sense, as for instance ot//iv Seov, the 
aspect of a God, not the aspect of God, which would be expressed by 
o*//iv tov Seov, and tig Zv T V (Tlv T»?£ * w search of land, not of the land: 
nor was it put after the governing case even with an article except under 
particular circumstances, as for instance where it gives a distinguishing 
force to the genitive or the governing substantive, or to avoid the con- 
currence of many articles or genitives, or follows a numeral, an adjective, 
or participle, and in some other cases, which it is needless to enumerate. 
For instance Iv Trapamctvrj r//c odov is during the preparation for the 
journey, iv rr/c bdoii irapaaKtvy is amongst the apparatus of the 



382 ATTILA, 

§ 31. While Attila was revelling with his new bride, 
the ambassadors were conducted onward across a level 
country, and traversed several rivers in canoes or boats 
used by the people who lived on their banks, similar to 



journey ; di daOhvtiav Qvaewg, through the weakness of their constitu- 
tion, did. ttjq tyvatug a<r9eveiav through the weakness of nature generally . 
Tj)v tig to 'UpoiJ rrjg "Icidog avaflacriv is written to avoid the con- 
currence of Trjv eig to rrjg and of the two accusatives 'iepov and 
avafiaoiv. The word 'Pwjitaioc is a singular exception to which Priscus 
never puts an article except where it is coupled with a substantive 
having one. Where Malchus writes QsoSe pi%ov tov Traidbg BaXafirjpov 
it is on account of the confusion of genitives. He would have written 
Qsodspixov tov Ba\a[xt)pov TtaXda. In a fragment supposed to be from 
Priscus in Suidas which commences 'Apdafivpiog vlbg "Apirapog, the first 
period evidently consists of the words of Suidas followed by a citation 
from Priscus, who would have written 'ApSa(3vpwg 6 tov "A<j7rapog. 

Gibbon, with singular inaccuracy, has stated that Attila married the 
daughter of Eslam, falsifying the name ; and the French author of 
the Conjuration contre Attila, though he makes her the daughter 
of Attila, with a tirade against the alleged incestuous habits of the 
Huns, calls her Esla, which he probably borrowed from the error of 
Gibbon. It is further to be observed that no such a man as either 
Eskam or Eslam is known to have existed, though it is certainly possible 
that such a name as Eskam might have occurred in the previous part of 
the lost history. There was an Eslas or rather Ayslas, 'HaAac, in the 
court of Attila, but that name cannot in any manner be identified with 
Eskam. Eskam may with more propriety be compared with the scrip- 
tural name Iskah the daughter of Haran and sister of Lot, probably his 
wife also and mother of his incestuous progeny, for it does not otherwise 
appear for what purpose Iskah is named in Genesis • the suggestion of 
commentators, that she was the same as Sarah, being distinctly nega- 
tived in c. 20, which states that Sarah was the daughter of Terah father 
of Abraham by another mother. An attentive perusal of the legends 
of the Teutonic and Scandinavian nations gives some reason to imagine 
that Eskam was not only the daughter of Attila, but of his sister Hilda, 
called by Latin writers Hildico, and that she is the same person oc- 
casionally styled in the Northern romances Aslang daughter of Sigurd, 
a name under which the Hunnish monarch is often designated. 



AND HIS PREDECESSORS. 383 

those in which they had crossed the Danube. The next 
in size to that river were stated to have been the Drecon, 
the Tigas, and Tiphesas, which last is the Teiss, but it 
has not been found practicable to identify the two others. 
The lesser streams were passed in boats that were car- 
ried on waggons by the barbarians through the country 
which was liable to be flooded. Millet was brought to 
the Romans for food from the villages instead of wheat, 
and mead instead of wine, together with a sort of beer 
made from barley which was called by the natives # cam. 
After a long and weary journey, they pitched their tents 
at evening near a lake of clear water which the inha- 
bitants of a neighbouring hamlet were in the habit of 
fetching for drink. A violent storm of wind and rain 
with exceedingly vivid lightning came on immediately 
after they had encamped, and not only overset their 
tents and laid all flat, but washed away their provisions 
and furniture into the lake. The Romans were so ter- 
rified, that they fled in various directions, floundering 
through the tempest in the dark night, to avoid the same 
fate as their chattels, till they fortunately met again in 
the village hard by, where they were very clamorous to 
be supplied with every thing they wanted. The Scythian 
cottagers ran out of their hovels and inquired into the 
cause of their vociferations, and being informed by the 
barbarians who were in company that they had been put to 
confusion by the storm, they invited them in, and kindled 
speedily a cheerful blaze with dry reeds. The mistress 
of the hamlet was a lady, who had been one of the wives 
of Bleda, and hearing of the misadventure of the Romans, 

* Prisons. — The true name of Onegesius was perhaps Enekes or Oneges. 



384 ATTILA, 

she sent to them a present of victuals, and also paid 
them the singular compliment, which however was 
a usual practice of honourable hospitality amongst the 
Huns, of sending them some beautiful Scythian women, 
who were enjoined to comply with all their wishes; but 
the ambassadors were either too decorous or too dis- 
heartened to be desirous of availing themselves of the 
offer, and declined the favours which were destined for 
them. The ladies were regaled with a portion of the 
supper and dismissed, and the ambassadors, having taken 
their repose in the cottages of the natives, proceeded at 
daybreak in search of their equipments, part of which 
they found on the spot where they had encamped, part 
on the banks of the lake, and part in the water ; but the 
whole of their goods was recovered, and they tarried all 
day in the hamlet to dry them in the sun, which shone 
out brilliantly after that stormy night. When due atten- 
tion had been paid to the beasts of burden, they pro- 
ceeded to visit the queen, and, having saluted her, they 
returned thanks for her hospitality, and presented her 
with three silver vessels, some crimson fleeces, Indian 
pepper, dates, and other articles for desert, which not 
being found amongst the barbarians were valuable to 
them. Having thus returned her compliment, they 
took their leave and proceeded on their journey for seven 
days, till the Scythian conductors made them halt in a 
village on their way, because Attila was coming in that 
direction, and it was not allowable for them to travel 
before him. At this place they fell in with ambassadors 
from the Western empire, Count Romulus, Primutus 
prsefect of Noricum, and Roman us general of a division. 
Constantius was with them, whom Aetius had sent as a 



AND HIS PREDECESSORS. 385 

secretary to Attila, and Tatullus the father of Orestes 
who was with Edecon, not being members of the legation, 
but having undertaken the journey through private mo- 
tives, the former on account of his previous intimacy 
with them in Italy, the latter from relationship, his son 
Orestes having married the daughter of Romulus from 
the city Patavion in Noricum. Their object was to 
pacify Attila, who required that Silvanus, a Roman 
silversmith, should be delivered up to him, because he 
had received some golden vessels from another Con- 
stantius, a native of Western Gaul, who had also been 
sent as a secretary by A'etius to Attila and Bleda. When 
the Huns were laying siege to Sirmium in Paeonia, those 
vessels had been delivered to Constantius by the bishop 
of the place for his own ransom in case he should survive 
the capture of the city, and to redeem others amongst 
the captives if he should have fallen ; but Constantius 
after the taking of Sirmium was faithless to his trust, and 
pawned the vessels for money to Silvanus, to be re- 
deemed within a given time, or the sale of them to stand 
good. Attila and Bleda, having suspected this Con- 
stantius of treason, crucified him, and Attila, hearing 
what had been done concerning the golden vessels, 
demanded Silvanus to be given up, as a robber of his 
property. The object of the embassy was therefore to 
persuade Attila that Silvanus was no thief, but that 
having taken the goods in pawn from Constantius, he 
had sold them as unredeemed pledges to the first priests 
who wished for them, because it was not lawful to sell 
them for the use of laymen, as they had been consecrated. 
The ambassadors were directed to try to prevail upon 
Attila to give up his claim to the vessels for this reason, 

•2 c 



386 ATTILA, 

and, if he persevered, to offer him gold in their stead, 
but on no account to give up the innocent silversmith to 
be crucified. The two parties of Eastern and Western 
Romans followed the route of Attila, and, after crossing 
some more rivers, they arrived at a large village, where 
Attila had a fixed residence. 

§ 32. It is not possible to gather, from the statement 
of the journey of the ambassadors, the exact situation of 
this place, but the number of days they had travelled 
makes it evident that it must have been in the north of 
Hungary. They had not however arrived at the Car- 
pathian mountains. Tokay has been mentioned by Buat 
as the most probable site. It has been also # conjectured 
that the tents of Attila, which were first visited by the 
legation, were pitched opposite Viddin, and that Jas- 
berin was the site of the royal village ; but other f writers 
have been of opinion that it was in that part of Moldavia 
which produces neither stone nor wood, for Priscus states 
that there was none in the neighbourhood, and that the 
stone, with which the baths of Onegesius were built, was 
brought out of the land of the Paeonians. That they 
did not cross the Danube near Viddin is however evident, 
because it lies north-east of Nissa, and Priscus says their 
general course was westward of that place ; and it seems 
that they must have crossed a little below Belgrade, and 
passed the Themes, the Bega, and the Theiss in the 
first instance, and afterwards the large tributary rivers 
which fall into the Theiss from the westward, and shaped 
their course towards Tokay. Jornandes calls the three 



* Otrocosius Orig. Hung. p. 1. c. 4. 
t Cantoclarus. — Timon Im. Ant. Hung. 1. 2. c. 5. 



AND HIS PREDECESSORS. 387 

rivers named by Priscus, the Tysia, Tibiscia, and 
Dricca. Tibiscus * is the known name of the Theiss, 
and f Tysia is probably a river falling into the Theiss 
which may have given to it the modern name. Nothing 
is known concerning the Dricca. To have reached Mol- 
davia they must have traversed the rivers of Wallachia, 
shaping their course eastward after visiting the tents of 
Attila ; but the only certain fact is that they did cross 
the Theiss, which lay in the contrary direction, and 
having done so they could only have reached Moldavia 
by recrossing that river, and threading one of the three 
passes through the mountains that separate it from 
Transylvania, neither of which suppositions is con- 
sistent with the narrative of Priscus. In another pas- 
sage that writer f states that the land of the Paeonians 
was by the river Saus, and it is certain from two 
passages in Menander, § that Saus was the Saave, 
which falls into the Danube from the opposite side a 
little below the Theiss, and the land in question was 
evidently the modern Sirmia near Belgrade, whence 
the stone might easily be carried up the river Theiss 
to Tokay in boats, but could not with any degree of 
probability have been conveyed to Moldavia. The 
facility of water-carriage probably induced Onegesius 
to procure the stone from Sirmia, for although there 
might be stone nearer in the mountains to the north, 
the conveyance of it would have been more difficult, 
and the Huns were probably from their habits impatient 
of labour in the quarries. 



Tephisos, Priscus. t Tigas, P?iscus. t Priscus, 1 . § r>. 

§ Menand. Hist. $ 14. and 30. 
2 C 2 



388 ATTILA, 

§ 33. In the same situation, or not far distant, on the 
right of the Theiss, was the strong hold and palace of 
the king of the Avar Huns, which was called the Hring 
and was destroyed by the armies of Charlemain in 796, 
and is said by the writers of that period to have subsisted 
many centuries. These stupendous works are mentioned 
by Jornandes, who says they were called Hunniwar by 
the Huns, but he does not describe them ; and it is ob- 
servable that the name of Ring by which they were 
known in the eighth century is also a Teutonic word, 
which probably had descended from the Huns of Attila, 
to the Avars who then occupied them. Priscus uses an 
expression equivalent to ring, when he speaks of the enclo- 
sure, which surrounded the dwelling of Attila, by the 
Greek word peribolos. In the reign of Charlemain, we 
find the marvellous fortifications of the Huns occupied by 
the Avars, who acquired the ascendancy at a period sub- 
sequent to the death of Attila, by whom they had been 
subdued, and afterwards were called Huns by the 
neighbouring nations. These works are particularly 
described by Notgerus Balbus, commonly called the 
Monk of St. Gall, in a passage of most difficult con- 
struction. He states,* that the land of the Huns was 
surrounded by nine circles ; and that when, imagining 
the circles to be common hedges, he asked Aldabert, 
who had served under Charlemain, what was the wonder, 
he learned from him that one circle was as wide, or 
comprehended in itself as much, as the distance from 
Constance to a place called Castrum Turonicum, of 
which the site in all probability cannot now be ascer- 

* St. Gall in Vita Caroli Magni, 1. 2, c. 2. 



AND HIS PREDECESSORS. 389 

tained. The abbot of Saint Gall was under the juris- 
diction of the bishop of Constance, and Castrum Turo- 
nicum must have been some place in that neighbourhood 
not having a see. It does not mean Tours, which 
was Caesarodunum Turonum. He goes on to state, that 
each circle was so constructed with stems of oak, beech, 
and fir, that it was twenty feet wide and twenty high ; 
that the whole cavity was filled with hard stones, or 
tenacious chalk, perhaps meaning mortar. The surface 
was covered with sods. Between, bushes were planted, 
which (according to the probable meaning of the ex- 
pression) were cut after the manner of clipped hedges. 
Between these circles, hamlets and villages were so 
placed, that the human voice could be heard from one 
to another. Opposite these buildings, narrow doors 
were fabricated in the strong walls. "• Also (he adds) 
" from the second circle, which was constructed in like 
" manner as the first, there was an extent of twenty 
" Teutonic, which are forty Italian, miles unto the 
" third. In like manner even unto the ninth ; although 
" the circles themselves were much more contracted 
" one than another ; and from circle to circle tenements 
" and habitations were so arranged in every direction, 
" that by the sound of trumpets the signification of 
c< everything could be comprehended at the distance 
" between each of them." From the very obscure pas- 
sage of which the above is a close translation, we learn 
first that the distance between the two outer circles 
was equal to that of Constance from an unknown town ; 
that the distance between the second and third was forty 
Italian miles of five thousand feet, equal to near thirty- 
eight English miles. The word also might seem to 



390 ATTILA, 

imply that the distance between the first and second 
circle, or between Constance and Castrum Turonicum, 
was also about thirty-eight English miles, but that would 
give too great a diameter. It is much more difficult to 
explain what follows ; it may imply that the spaces 
between the circles were invariably equal, adding the 
mere truism, that the circumference of the inner con- 
centric circles was necessarily smaller than that of the 
outer; or it may imply that the walls were built in the 
same manner throughout, but that the inner spaces were 
narrower. If the former interpretation be adopted, which 
certainly appears more conformable to the words, and the 
spaces between the several rings, and between the inner 
ring and the centre be considered to have been similar, 
that is, thirty-eight English miles, the diameter of the 
outer circle would be six hundred and eighty-four miles^ 
and would enclose a great deal more than the whole 
of Hungary, and is inconsistent with what we have 
reason to believe, that the rings were situated between 
the Danube and the Theiss. A circle of about one 
hundred and fifty miles diameter will enclose the greater 
part of Upper Hungary between those two rivers, the 
Mora, and the Krapac mountains, and such was probably 
the site and extent of those great works, supposing the 
space between the two exterior belts to have been less 
than between the second and third, perhaps sixteen 
miles, and the remaining twenty-one miles of the radius, 
or forty-two of the diameter, to have been divided amongst 
the seven interior. The inner portion would thus have 
consisted of seven concentric circles, like the town of 
Ecbatana, as described by Herodotus, to which two 
wider belts were superadded. The celebrated labyrinth 



AND HIS PREDECESSORS. 391 

of Crete was perhaps a structure of the same kind. 
Eginhart,* notary of Charlemain, in his Annates, says 
that in 791 the emperor defeated the Huns upon the 
Danube, drove them from their fortifications, and pene- 
trated to the mouth of the river Arrabon or Raab. 
That in 796 Eric duke of Friuli plundered the Ringus, 
and that later in the same year, Pepin having driven the 
Huns across the Theiss, and utterly demolished their 
palace, "which is Ringus, but is called by the Lombards 
Campus," sent their treasures to Charlemain. In his 
Vita Caroli Magni>\ the notary says the wars with the 
Huns lasted eight years, and were so bloody that all 
the dwellings in Pannonia were destroyed, and not a 
vestige of a human habitation remained in the place 
where the palace of the chagawn had been situated. 
The anonymous % annals of Charlemain say that in 791 
he took the defences of the Avars, advanced to the 
Raab, and retired ; and in 796 he » received a message 
in Saxony, which informed him that Pepin was lodged 
with his army in the Ring. The unknown author of 
another Vita Caroli Magni,§ says that in 791 the Huns 
abandoned their works near the Danube, and he marched 
to the river Raab. In 796 Henry duke of Friuli 
(for Henry and Eric are different forms of the same 
name) having sent a force into Pannonia, plundered 
the Ring of the Avars, who were divided by civil war, 
the chagawn having been murdered by his own people ; 
and he sent their treasures, which had been accumulated 
there during a long course of centuries, to Charlemain. 



* P. 24. edit. Duchesne. t lb. p. 98. $ P. 37 and 99. 
§ P. 57 and 58. 



392 ATTILA, 

That in the same year Thudun came over to him with 
a great part of the Avars, and was baptized ; and before 
the end of that year (796) a message was received by 
Charlemain, that Pepin had come to blows with the 
new chagawn and his nobles, and again a second message 
that Pepin was lodged in the Ring. Another author * 
who wrote about the year 858, says that in 796 Pepin 
arrived at the celebrated place which is called Rinch, 
where the Huns surrendered to him. An ancient Saxon 
poet,f who wrote in the reign of Arnolf, A. D. 888, gives 
a similar account, and says that Pepin beat the Huns 
beyond the Theiss, and levelled to the ground their 
royal residence called Hring. It is quite clear that the 
palace or royal residence in which the plunder of Europe 
had been then stored up for three or four centuries was 
the central ring or circle of the nine circumvallations 
which have been described ; and, as they had existed for 
centuries, there is no reason to doubt that they were the 
identical fortifications which Jornandes states to have 
existed in the time of Attila under the name of Hunni- 
war. The central ring was perhaps in the neighbour- 
hood of Gomor in Upper Hungary. It is observable 
that Eusebius, speaking of the six concentric walls to 
the Babylon of Nebuchodonosar, calls them by the same 

* De rebus Caroli Magni curn Hunnis et Slavis. p. 220. 
t Hunis intulerat bellum, sic patre jubente, 
Cum quibus eventu certamina prospera lseto 
Trans fluvium Tizan gessit, cunctisque fugatis 
Hostibus, a Francis Hunorum regia tota 
Est sequata solo, quam Hringum diximus ante. p. 155. 
Modern historians, quite ignorant of the nature of these defences and of 
the meaning of the word, have said that Pepin took the town of Ring. 
£ee Gilford's Hist, of France, 



AND HIS PREDECESSORS. 393 

word (periboloi) which is used by Priscus in describing 
the residence of Attila. A passage * concerning the 
abode of the Hunnish monarch in Saemund's Edda, 
which has been entirely misunderstood by the Latin 
translator, and which the annotator calls one of the pas- 
sages in the poem which cannot be solved, alludes to the 
concentric circumvallations as having existed in the time 
of Attila, and it was only difficult, because he knew not 
the nature of the defences to which it refers. It may 
be translated literally thus. " They saw the land of 
" Attila and deep towers ; the fierce men stand in that 
" high bourg, the hall around the people of the South, 
" surrounded with set-beams, with circles bound to- 
" gether, with white shields, the obstacle of spearmen. 
" There Attila was drinking wine in his divine f hall. 
" The warders sat without, tec.'' The translator renders 
the word sess-meithom% seat-beams, and explains it thus, 
that the hall had wooden seats round it, and that either 
a bundle of shields was hung over head above the seats, 
or single shields tied together suspended against the wall. 
On reference to the detailed account of the Hunnish 
fortifications, it is evident that the set-beams are the 
stems (stipites) with which the circumvallations were 
constructed; that the circles bound together are the 
concentric belts or rings ; that the white shields are a 
figurative illustration of the same, white, because as the 
Monk of St. Gall says, they were made with chalk, 

* Atla quicla in Grcenlenska, st. 14. 

t Val-haullo 7 called so after the hall of Odin, or rather because Attila 
was the Odin of the North. 

% Cinctam sedilibus jugis, colligatis orbibus, albicantibus clypeis, 
obstaculo hastati ordinis. 



394 ATTILA, 

(creta) and shields, as explained in the next line, be- 
cause they were obstacles opposed to the attack of an 
enemy. The editors could not have found this easy 
solution of the passage in Scandinavian literature, and 
they looked no further. The conformity of these 
various and very ancient authorities gives strong reason 
for assuming that Attila had (to use the remarkable 
expression of Ammianus Marcellinus when speaking 
of the circular positions of the Alans) circumcircated 
the district of Upper Hungary, and that hither Priscus 
was conducted ; not to the inmost ring, but the village 
situated perhaps on the outside of its eastern entrance 
near Tokay, as Sicambria the favourite abode of Attila 
near Buda was perhaps at its southern entrance; but 
it is possible that the exterior belts may not have 
been constructed till a later period. The dwelling of 
Attila, and that" of Onegesius, are both described by 
Priscus, as being surrounded with a circular construc- 
tion of wood, which he calls peribolos, not for security, 
but for ornament, which shews the affection the Huns 
had for the Ring in their architecture. The palace of 
Attila exceeded all the other structures in size and 
conspicuous appearance. It was built with massive 
timber, and beautifully polished planks, and adorned 
with towers. The dwelling of Onegesius was the next 
in importance, but not ornamented with towers, though 
in like manner environed by a wooden ring, formed of 
upright timber close * set in the ground. At a short 
distance were the baths which Onegesius, who had great 
wealth and influence amongst the Huns, had caused to 

* Exactly answering the Scandinavian expression set-beams, 



AND HIS PREDECESSORS. ."395 

be constructed of stone from the Sirmian quarries, by a 
captive architect who was a native of Sirmium, and had 
vainly hoped that his manumission would be the reward 
of his labours; but Onegesius, after the building was 
completed, made the unfortunate architect superinten- 
dant of the bath, and caused him to wait upon himself 
and his friends during their ablutions. 

§ 34. As Attila made his entry into this village, a 
number of damsels advanced to meet him, arranged in 
ranks under white veils of exceeding fineness, which 
were of great length, and so extended and held aloft by 
the hands of the women, that under every one of them 
walked seven or more damsels, singing Scythian airs, 
and the rows of young women thus placed under the 
veils were very numerous. The way to the royal resi- 
dence lay by the dwelling of Onegesius, and, as Attila 
was passing it, the wife of Onegesius came out with a 
multitude of servants bearing dressed fish and wine, 
which is the highest compliment amongst the Huns, and 
she saluted Attila praying him to partake of her li- 
berality. He, wishing to appear gracious to the wife of 
his confidential friend, ate as he sat upon his horse, a 
table of massive silver being lifted up to him by the 
attendants ; and, having tasted of the cup offered to him, 
he retired into his own palace, which was placed in a 
more elevated situation than the other buildings, and 
overlooked them. The ambassadors were invited into 
the house of Onegesius, who had returned together with 
the son of Attila, and they dined there, being received 
by the wife of Onegesius and the most distinguished of 
his relatives ; for he had not leisure to partake with them, 
having been summoned to make a report of the trans- 



396 ATTILA, 

actions of his mission to Attila, who had not before seen 
him since his return, and to detail the particulars of the 
misadventure of Attila's son, who had broken his right 
arm by a fall. When they withdrew from the hospitable 
board of Onegesius, the Romans pitched their tents in 
the neighbourhood of the palace of Attila, that Maximin 
might be at hand to confer with him or his counsellors. 
Early the next morning Priscus was sent by Maximin 
to Onegesius to present to him the gifts which he brought 
on his own part and that of the emperor, and to learn 
whether the favourite would grant him an interview, 
and at what time. The Huns had not risen so early as 
the Romans, and, the doors being all closed, the historian 
remained with the menials who bore the presents, waiting 
without the ring of timber that surrounded the buildings, 
until some person should happen to come out. While 
he was walking up and down to beguile the time, he 
was surprised on being addressed by a man habited as a 
Hun who bade him hail in the Greek language, which 
was rarely spoken by any amongst them, except captives 
from Thrace or the coast of Illyria, and those might be 
at once recognized by the miserable and squalid con- 
dition of their garments and hair; but this man appeared 
to be a Scythian in excellent plight, with his hair neatly 
cropped all round. Having returned his salutation, 
Priscus was informed that he was a Greek who had gone 
to attend the fair at the Mysian city Viminacium on the 
Danube, where he had married a rich wife and esta- 
blished himself; but, on the capture of that town by the 
Huns, he and all his wealth had fallen to the lot of 
Onegesius, in the division of the spoil amongst the prin- 
cipal followers of Attila. Some time after, having 



AND HIS PREDECESSORS. 397 

fought valiantly in company with the Huns against the 
Romans and Acatzires, according to the Scythian law 
he had regained his liberty by surrendering to his master 
all the plunder he had made in the war ; and, having a 
place at the table of Onegesius, he was well satisfied with 
his present condition : for that the Huns, when the 
labours of warfare were at an end, lived without any 
cares, enjoying their possessions without any molestation, 
and in perfect security. On the other hand he drew a 
melancholy picture of the state of the empire, of which 
the subjects were easily taken or slain in war, because 
the jealousy of their masters prevented their being en- 
trusted with arms for their own defence, and that even 
those, who carried arms on behalf of the Romans, suffered 
grievously from the incapacity and inertness of their 
officers ; but that in peace the case was even worse than 
in war, through the weight of taxes and the extortion of 
evil men in power, the laws not being equally adminis- 
tered to all, but transgressed with impunity by the rich 
and powerful, while strictly carried into operation against 
the indigent, if indeed they survived the period of a pro- 
tracted and ruinous lawsuit ; and so deeply rooted was 
the corruption of justice, that no man amongst them 
could hope for the protection of the laws, without con- 
ciliating by money the favour of the judge and his de- 
pendants. The historian according to his own account 
attempted to reply to the censures of the apostate Greek 
by a feeble panegyric on the system of Roman jurispru- 
dence, without contradicting the facts that were alleged. 
This brought forth a brief observation, which appears to 
have been unanswerable and uncontroverted, that the 
constitution of Rome might be good, and her laws ex- 



398 ATTILA, 

cellent, but that both were perverted by the corruption 
of those who administered them. 

§ 35. The door having been at length opened acci- 
dentally, Priscus eagerly enquired for Onegesius, stating 
that he came from Maxim in the ambassador of the 
Romans ; but this application did not procure admission 
for him, and he was requested to wait till the Hun 
should come forth. Onegesius having appeared soon 
after, accepted the gold and presents, which he ordered 
his attendants to carry into the house; and he replied 
to the request which Maximin made for an interview, 
that he would visit the Roman in his tent. This he did 
soon after, and, having thanked him for the presents, 
enquired upon what account he had requested an in- 
terview. Maximin expressed an earnest desire that 
Onegesius should # personally proceed into the Roman 
territory, and enquire into and adjust the points in dis- 
pute favourably to the emperor. Onegesius rejected 
with indignation all tampering with his allegiance, 
asking if they imagined that he did not esteem ser- 
vitude under Attila to be more honourable than 
independent wealth amongst the Romans; but added 
that he could be more useful to them by remaining 
where he was and softening the frequent irritation of his 
monarch, than by going amongst them and exposing 
himself to blame, if he should act in any respect against 
the opinion of Attila. Before he departed, Onegesius 

* dta(3ag eig ttjv ' P 10 jx a icj v. Priscus. subaudi yr\v. In the Latin 
version of Priscus this expression has been misundeVstood, and is 
rendered in rem prcesentem descendens, i. e. enquiring into the business 
of the Romans. The answer of Onegesius makes it clear that he wns 
asked to undertake a journey. 



AND HIS PREDECESSORS. 399 

consented to receive the future communications of the 
ambassador through the intervention of Priscus, because 
the high dignity of Maximin would have rendered 
frequent and protracted interviews with him unbe- 
coming and probably liable to suspicion. On the fol- 
lowing day the historian penetrated the ring which 
enclosed the mansions of Attila, being the bearer of 
presents to Kreka * his principal queen, who had borne 
him three sons, of whom the eldest had been raised to 
the rank of king over the Acatzires and other tribes 
bordering upon the Euxine. The various buildings 
within the enclosure were of wood; some constructed 
with planks expertly fitted together and beautified with 
pannels or carvings f of insculpture ; others of straight 

* The Latin translators of Priscus render the name Cerca. In the 
Scandinavian legends Herca is mentioned as the queen of Attila; but 
the names and fate of her children as detailed therein do not accord 
with the account given by Priscus of the offspring of Kreka. The Latin 
commeutators and some of the Hungarian writers have also expressed 
their opinion that Rekan who is mentioned in another passage by 
Priscus as wife of Attila, is the same person and the same name as 
Kreka. It is evidently the same as Regan, which occurs in the legend 
of king Lear ; and the aspirate which precedes the R in Greek might 
be used with the guttural tone of Ch in the same manner, as Hilderic is 
written Childeric, Hilda Childa or Kilda, Louis or Hlouis Chlovis ; but 
if Chrekan had been the actual Scythian name, in giving it a Greek 
inflexion Priscus would not contrary to his practice have rejected the 
final consonant, but he would have lengthened the name into Rhekane 
or Chrekane. 

t The Greek account of these edifices is rather obscure, and seems to 
have been misunderstood. The first mentioned were Ik aavi^wv 
iyy\v<p&v, of planks or pannels insculptured like the figures on a seal ; 
the latter knJ36^Xt]fjifxsviov £vAoic cnrorsXoixnv, overcast with finished 
logs, which appears to mean the application of polished mouldings and 
patterns in relief on the smooth surface of the building. The Latin 



l 



400 ATTILA, 

massive timber perfectly squared and planed, and orna- 
mented in relief with highly wrought beams or mould- 
ings. The visitors having been admitted by the Huns, 
who were standing at the door, found the queen reclin- 
ing upon a soft counterpane, the floor of the room being 
delicately carpeted, and opposite to her were sitting 
upon the carpet damsels employed in embroidering veils 
or scarfs, which were worn by the Huns over their cloth- 
ing for ornament. Having saluted her and presented 
the gifts, Priscus withdrew, and, waiting for Onegesius 

translators in the amended version say that the logs were bent into 
circles (ligna in circulos curvata) which is not stated in the original ; 
confounding the sentence with that which follows, oi da kvkXoi Ik tov 
idd(j)ovg dQ%6fx(.voi kg vxpog av'sfiaivov fjtsrpiujg, i. e. " but the circles 
commencing from the groundsill rose gradually into altitude," which the 
translators not comprehending referred to the wooden ornaments, and 
supposed them on that account to be circular. In the preceding line 
Priscus had stated that the timbers of which the buildings were con- 
structed were perfectly straight and square ; therefore the buildings 
were not circular, neitber could tbe mouldings on their surface be so, 
unless it be explained that they were like circular picture-frames placed 
one above another from the bottom to the top of the wall. But when 
the historian wrote that the straight timbers were overlaid with finished 
logs, but the circles beginning from the level soil rose gradually in 
height, he could not have meant to express one and the same thing by 
logs and circles, or have considered that, by thus introducing the word 
circles, he had explained such extraordinary ornamental architecture. 
In using the word circles (which is disjoined from the preceding sen- 
tence by the word but) he evidently refers to the structures which he 
had just before called 7re()i(3o\oi or rings; and he describes exactly what 
Herodotus had described before concerning Ecbatana, that the buildings 
were surrounded, not by a single ring, but by several concentric rings, 
of which the outer was the lowest, and the several interior rings rose 
gradually, as in the abode of DeVoces, higher and higher. In a sub- 
sequent passage he mentions the circles or rings that surrounded the 
residence of Attila in the plural. Ed. 1829, p. 199. 



AND HIS PREDECESSORS. 401 

who was known to have entered the residence of Attila, 
he proceeded towards some of the other buildings, in 
which he then resided, without any interruption * from 
the guards to whom he was known. Standing amidst 
the crowd of people, he observed the multitude in 
motion, and a press and noise, as if the monarch was 
coming forth ; and presently he saw him, accompanied 
by Onegesius, issue from his dwelling, bearing himself 
haughtily and casting his eyes f round on all sides. 
Many, who had controversies, came before him, and 
received in the open air his sentence on the points in 
dispute ; and, after the close of his judicial labours, he 
re-entered the house and gave audience to the ambas- 
sadors of various barbarian nations. Priscus continued 
to await the leisure of Onegesius in the palace court, 
where he was accosted by the ambassadors from the 
Western empire, who inquired whether Maximin had 
received his dismissal, or was under the necessity of 
remaining. Priscus replied that he was waiting for 
Onegesius to ascertain that very point, and enquired into 
the success of their mission, but was informed by them 
that Attila was quite inexorable and denounced imme- 
diate war against Valentinian, unless either Silvanus or 
the golden vessels were delivered up to him. Priscus, 
having expressed his surprise at the arrogance of Attila, 

* The Latin translators have written that he was not prevented from 
going into any part of the palace, which is an erroneous translation, and 
absurd. 

t The Latin translators of Priscus have misunderstood this passage, 
mistaking the middle voice for the passive, and have rendered it " being 
looked upon on this side and that," or " the eyes of all being turned to 
him." 

2 D 



402 ATTILA, 

received some interesting information from Romulus, 
whose sources of knowledge were undeniable, his 
daughter being married to Orestes the follower of 
Edecon and scribe of Attila, whose father Tatullus was 
even then in the company. This information is very 
important, for we may rely upon it as the true statement 
of the power of Attila at that time, and the extent of his 
empire. He asserted that no king, either of Scythia or 
any other land had done such great things in so short a 
time ; inasmuch as his rule extended over the islands in 
the ocean, and in addition to all Scythia, he had reduced 
the Romans to be tributary to him ; and that, not con- 
tent with his European conquests, he was meditating 
even then the subjugation of Persia. The Danish # his- 
torians, who are determined to shut their eyes against 
the fact, that Attila was master of the Danish islands 
and the south of Scandinavia which the Romans con- 
sidered to be an island called by them Thule, and that 
in truth they have no authentic history previous to the 
time of Attila, who is mixed up under diverse names in 
their ancient legends, have asserted that Russia was 
looked upon as insular by the Romans, and was meant 
by the islands of the ocean upon this occasion. But the 
statement of Priscus is an unequivocal admission by an 
enemy to Attila, who had the means of knowing and 
could not be mistaken, that he did rule over the islands 
of the ocean generally, and whether part of Russia was 
supposed to be an island and included under the deno- 
mination or not, that single portion could not by any 
interpretation have been intended to the exclusion of the 

* Suhm, &c. 



AND HIS PREDECESSORS. 403 

rest. On the other hand the words may be interpreted 
to include Great Britain and Ireland, and it may be a 
matter of doubt whether even that was not intended, 
and whether, although Attila never set foot in Great 
Britain, the legends of St. Patric and Arthur, which are 
contemporaneous with and have evident reference to 
him, do not represent the influence and authority which 
he had acquired in the British isles through his emis- 
saries and the weight of his Antichristian pretensions ; 
but with respect to his dominion over the Danish and 
Scandinavian territory, which was more particularly 
called the islands of the ocean, the assertion of Romulus 
made in the presence of the father of Orestes would 
have been irrefragable, even if it had not been con- 
firmed, as it is, by the concurring evidence of the Scan- 
dinavian sagas and Teutonic legends. The Eastern 
Romans, having enquired through what quarter he would 
be able to attack the Persians, were further informed by 
him that the dominions of Attila extended to the neigh- 
bourhood of the Medes, and that Bazic and Cursic, two 
Huns of the blood royal, who ruled over many followers 
and afterwards went to Rome to negociate an alliance, 
had actually penetrated into Media, the Romans being 
prevented by other wars at that time from interfering to 
prevent the inroad. The account given by those princes 
was that they had crossed a desert tract and afterwards a 
lake, which Romulus supposed to be the Mseotis, and 
after fifteen days journey surmounted a ridge of hills 
and descended into Media, which they began to ravage, 
but an immense host of Persian archers having come 
upon them, they were forced to fall back carrying with 
them only a small portion of the booty. Romulus there- 

•2D2 



404 ATTILA, 

fore represented, that if Attila should determine to 
attack the Medes and Persians and Parthians, and 
render them tributary, he would find ready access to 
their territory, and had ample means to reduce them, 
against which no nation could make head successfully. 
The party of Priscus having said that it was a consum- 
mation greatly to be desired, that Attila should be 
pleased to attack the Persians, and leave the empire at 
peace, were judiciously answered by Constantiolus that 
after the reduction of the Medes, Persians, and Par- 
thians, Attila would be found still more formidable, and 
would no longer bear that the Roman empire should 
continue distinct from his own, but would treat them 
openly as his slaves ; whereas at present he was con- 
tented with the payment of gold in consideration of the 
dignity conferred upon him ; for, as Priscus witnesses, 
the degenerate Romans had bestowed upon their most 
dreaded antagonist the title of commander in chief over 
the Roman forces ; but the Hun, not contented with 
the title by which, at the expence of national honour, 
they had hoped to sooth his vanity, demanded an ample 
stipend in the character of commander in chief; and 
even at that time in his angry moments he was wont to 
say, that his servants were the commanders of armies, 
and equal in honour with the emperors of Rome. "And 
yet" (he adds) " his power will erelong be greater, as 
the sword of Mars revealed by the God testifies, which 
being reputed sacred and worshipped by the Scythian 
kings as dedicated to the dispenser of battles, had disap- 
peared in former times, but had been again found 
through the means of a heifer, 1 ' which had been wounded 
by it, and left a track of blood that led to its discovery. 



AND HIS PREDECESSORS. 405 

§ 36. Onegesius, having at length come forth, delayed 
answering the enquiries of Priscus, till he had conversed 
with some barbarians, after which he desired him to 
enquire from Maximin what man of consular dignity the 
Romans intended to send to treat with Attila, a question 
which must have been insolently intended, inasmuch as 
Maximin was of high rank and appointed for that 
especial purpose. Priscus having made this report and 
consulted with his principal, returned to answer the 
insult by a compliment to Onegesius, saying that the 
Romans would prefer that he should proceed to their 
court to adjust the points in controversy ; but, if that 
could not be obtained, they would send whatever person 
would be most acceptable to Attila. Thereupon One- 
gesius desired Priscus to request the immediate presence 
of Maximin, whom he conducted straightways to the 
monarch. Attila demanded that either Nomus or Ana- 
tolius or Senator should be sent to him, refusing to 
receive any other person in the character of ambassador. 
Maximin having represented to him, that by naming 
the persons with whom he chose to confer he could not 
fail to alarm the suspicions of Theodosius, he replied 
that unless they thought fit to do as he required, he 
would settle the controversy by the sword. On the 
return of the ambassador and historian to the Roman 
tents, they were visited by the father of Orestes, who 
brought them an invitation from Attila to a banquet at 
the ninth hour of the day. At the appointed time the 
legates from the Eastern and Western empire, having 
proceeded together according to the invitation, stood at 
the threshold of the banqueting hall of Attila. After 
the fashion of the Himnish court, the cupbearers, who 



406 ATTILA, 

were stationed near the door, placed a goblet in their 
hands, that they might drink a health to Attila before 
they took their places, to which they advanced after 
having tasted the cup. The seats were all placed against 
the wall on either side, but Attila sat on an elevated 
couch in the centre, another couch being placed behind 
him, from whence there was an ascent by means of steps 
to that on which he was seated. The historian states 
that the seats on the right hand of Attila were considered 
the most honourable, and those on the left were secondary 
situations, which however were allotted to the Roman 
ambassadors, Berich, a noble Scythian, being placed 
above them. Onegesius sat upon a seat on the right 
beside the couch of Attila, and opposite to him on 
another seat were two of the monarch's sons. The 
eldest of the three, who were all children of Kreka, sat 
on the very couch of Attila, not beside him, but on the 
furthest edge, looking on the ground out of respect to 
his father. When the whole company were arranged in 
the several places destined for them, a cupbearer ap- 
proaching Attila handed a goblet to him. Each guest 
had a particular cupbearer, whose duty it was to place 
himself in rank with the others, when the king's cup- 
bearer advanced. Attila, having taken the goblet, 
saluted the person who occupied the first place, and he 
who was thus honoured arose, nor was it lawful for him 
to sit down till having either emptied, or at least tasted, 
his own goblet, he had returned it to his cupbearer. In 
this manner Attila drank successively to the health of 
each of his convives, and, when he re-seated himself, 
they returned the salutation, tasting the liquor after 
having addressed him. When this ceremony was ended, 



AND HIS PREDECESSORS. 407 

the cupbearers retired from the hall. Tables for three, 
four, or more guests, were placed behind that of Attila, 
where each person might help himself from the dish 
before him, but must not move from the place allotted 
to him. Then stepped forth the first attendant of Attila, 
bearing a dish filled with meat, and after him those who 
distributed bread and fish to the different tables. For 
the Romans and all the other guests a most sumptuous 
repast was furnished upon round silver plates, but the 
king himself ate nothing but flesh and that upon a 
wooden trencher, and shewed like moderation in every 
thing else, for the goblets of all his guests were of gold 
or of silver, but his own cup was also of wood. His 
dress was equally simple, being remarkable only for its 
perfect cleanness ; and neither the formidable sword 
that hung beside him, nor the ligaments of his sandals, 
nor the bit of his horse was ornamented with gold and 
precious stones, like those of his followers. His personal 
appearance is recorded by Jornandes, extracting the 
description undoubtedly from Priscus, whom he cites 
immediately afterwards, but the original account is lost. 
His stature was short, with a wide chest, a head of un- 
usual magnitude, and small eyes which he had a habit 
of casting to the right and left with a haughty aspect ; 
his beard was thin with an intermixture of grey hairs, 
his nose flat, and his complexion very dark, indicating 
his origin, as we are told by Jornandes, but whether he 
means simply that he had the peculiarities of the Hun- 
nish race, or alludes to the diabolical extraction which 
he attributes to them, does not perfectly appear. Having 
ate of the fish which was served on the first dishes, the 
whole company stood up, and no one might sit down 



408 ATTILA, 

again before he had quaffed to the bottom a cup full of 
wine, wishing health and prosperity to Attila. Having 
rendered him this honour, each person re-seated himself, 
and proceeded to attack the second dish, which contained 
some other dainty ; but after each dish had been finished, 
the same ceremony of standing up, and emptying a cup 
of wine to the monarch's health was repeated. When 
the day- light began to fail, torches were lighted, and two 
barbarians, standing opposite to him, recited verses 
which they had composed, celebrating his victories, and 
the virtues which adorn a warrior. The guests appeared 
to listen to them with earnest attention, some delighted 
with the poetry, some excited by the recollections of the 
battles that were described, and others melting even into 
tears, their warlike spirit having been reduced by age to 
languish within a body no longer apt for military ex- 
ertions. When the songs were ended, a Scythian fool, 
uttering every sort of absurdity, made the whole court 
laugh. After him Zercon the Moor entered. He had 
come to the court, hoping by the good offices of Edecon 
to recover his wife, who, when he was a favourite with 
Bleda, had been given to him amongst the barbarians, 
but had been left by him in Scythia, when he was sent 
by Attila as a present to A'etius. He was ill-grown, 
short, hump-backed, with crooked legs, so excessively 
flat nosed, that there was scarcely any projection over his 
nostrils, and he lisped ridiculously. He had been for- 
merly given to Aspar the son of Ardaburius, with whom 
he tarried some time in Lybia ; but he was afterwards 
taken prisoner, when the Huns made an irruption into 
Thrace, and brought to the Hunnish kings. Attila 
hated to look on him, but Bleda took great delight in 



AND HIS PREDECESSORS. 409 

him, on account of die absurd things which he said, and 
his whimsical manner of walking and moving his body ; 
and he kept him in his presence both at banquets and 
in warfare, and in his military expeditions he made him 
wear armour as a laughing-stock. The ugly dwarf how- 
ever contrived to make his escape with some other cap- 
tives, but Bleda neglecting to pursue the others, ordered 
the most active search to be made after Zercon, and, 
when he was retaken and brought before him, he en- 
quired why he preferred servitude under the Romans to 
his household ; whereupon the Moor confessed his error, 
but attributed his flight entirely to the want of a wife. 
Bleda laughed exceedingly, and said that he should have 
one ; and in fact so absolute were the Hunnish kings, 
that he gave him in marriage a woman of noble birth, 
who had been an attendant on the queen, but on account 
of some unseasonable act was no longer permitted to 
approach her. He continued thus with Bleda until his 
death, when he was sent by Attila as a present to Aetius, 
who gave him back to Aspar. Having now returned to 
the court of Attila, he was disappointed in the hope of 
recovering his wife, because Attila was incensed at his 
having run away, when he had sent him as a present ; 
but at this moment of festivity, by his look, his dress, 
and voice, and by the confusion of the words he used, 
blending in a ludicrous manner the language of tho 
Goths and Huns with that of the Latins, he excited all 
the party, except Attila, to the most inextinguishable 
laughter; but Attila sat motionless, without the least 
change of countenance, and neither by word or sign 
shewed any semblance of hilarity; excepting that he 
pinched the cheek of his youngest son by Kreka, named 



410 ATTILA, 

Ernas or Irnach, as he stood by him, and looked upon 
him with kindness. Priscus, having expressed his sur- 
prise, at his apparent preference for this child and neglect 
of the others, to a Scythian who sat by him and under- 
stood Latin, was told by him under promise of secrecy 
that it had been prophesied to Attila, that his race, which 
must otherwise be extinguished, would be upheld by 
this boy. 

The carouse was prolonged far into the night, but the 
Romans, finding the potations inconveniently liberal, 
thought it advisable to withdraw ; and on the following 
morning they visited Onegesius for the purpose of asking 
to be dismissed, and not kept wasting their time to no 
avail. They were informed by him that Attila desired 
their departure, and having left them for a short time 
he consulted with the select council concerning the 
wishes of Attila, and digested the letters which were to 
be sent to Theodosius with the assistance of certain 
scribes, and of Rusticius, who has been already mentioned, 
a native of Mysia who had been taken prisoner, and on 
account of his fluency in composition was retained in 
the epistolary department at the court of the Hun. The 
council being ended, the ambassadors applied to One- 
gesius for the liberation of the wife and children of 
Sylla, who had been captured in Ratiaria. He was 
not averse to set them free, but required an enormous 
ransom ; whereupon they strove to move his compassion, 
by representing their former rank and condition, and 
their present misery. After having seen Attila again, 
he liberated the lady for 500 pieces of gold, and sent 
the children as a present to the emperor. 

§ 37. In the mean time the ambassadors had re- 



AND HIS PREDECESSORS. 411 

ceived an invitation from Rekan the wife of Attila, to 
sup at the house of Adam * the superintendant of her 
household and affairs ; and having proceeded together 
with some of the principal Scythians, they were re- 
ceived with much courtesy, and fared sumptuously. 
Each of the guests paid them the singular compliment 
after the Hunnish fashion of standing up from the 
table and giving them a cup of wine, and, after they 
had drunk, embracing them and kissing them before he 
received back the cup. The supper was prolonged till 
it was time to retire to rest, and on the following day 
they were again invited to feast with Attila. The same 
forms were observed as on the former day, but instead 
of his elder son, CEbarsius or CEbars his uncle on the 
father's side sat on his couch. During the repast the 
monarch spoke kindly to them, desiring them to request 
the emperor to send a wife, as he had promised, for 
Constantius the secretary who had been given to him by 
Aietius. This Constantius, having previously accom- 
panied the ambassadors whom Attila had sent to Theo- 
dosius, had promised that he would exert himself to 
make the peace durable, if the emperor would bestow a 
rich wife upon him, which was granted, and the daughter 
of Saturninus a rich and distinguished Greek, was 
promised to him. But Saturninus was afterwards as- 
sassinated by the empress Eudocia, and the emperor 
was prevented by Zeno, a man of consular dignity, from 

* Cantaclarus has strangely blundered in the Latin version of this 
account in Priscus, and the author of the Conjuration contre Attila 
following him has stated erroneously that Rekan superintended the 
affairs of Attila, and has also attributed to her some indelicate conduct 
which is founded on misapprehension of the. Greek expressions. 



412 ATTILA, 

fulfilling his promise. This man had led a great force 
of Isaurians to the protection of Constantinople during 
the war, and, having then the command of all the forces 
in the East, he had withdrawn the damsel from the 
custody in which she had been placed, and had betrothed 
her to Rufus, one of his own dependants. Constantius 
complained to the emperor of the insult and injustice 
done to him, and asked to have either the lady who had 
been thus abducted, or another bride of equal rank and 
opulence ; on which account Attila enjoined to Maximin 
the care of the interests of his secretary, who undertook 
to give him a portion of the dowry, if he should succeed 
in obtaining one of the most wealthy Greek heiresses in 
marriage. 

§ 38. Three days after, the ambassadors of Theodosius 
were dismissed with gifts, and with them Attila sent, 
on a mission to the emperor, Berich, who has been men- 
tioned as having sat above them at the banquet. He 
was a member of the select council, and lord over many 
Scythian villages, and had been on some former occasion 
received by the Romans on an embassy. During the 
journey, while they were tarrying in a certain village, 
a Scythian was taken, who had been sent as a spy by 
the Romans into the territory of Attila, who forthwith 
ordered him to be crucified. On the next day, as they 
were passing through another village, they saw two men 
who had formerly been taken prisoners in war, and 
were conducted with their hands tied behind them, 
having been guilty of murdering the masters to whom 
they had been allotted ; and these were also crucified, 
their heads having been fixed to two beams furnished 
with hooks. At the passage of the Danube, Rerich, 



AND HIS PREDECESSORS. 413 

who had until then been exceedingly familiar and 
friendly, became very hostile and exasperated in conse- 
quence of some futile differences between the servants. 
He shewed the first mark of resentment by redemand- 
ing a horse which he had given to Maximin ; for Attila 
had ordered all the members of the select council to offer 
gifts to Maximin, and a horse had been sent by every 
one of them ; Maximin however, wishing to get credit 
for moderation, had accepted only a few and sent back 
the remainder. Not content with requiring back his 
gift, Berich would no longer keep company with them 
on the road or eat with them ; but having passed through 
Philippopolis and reached Adrianople, they came to an 
explanation with him, and a seeming reconciliation 
having taken place, they invited him to supper. On 
their arrival however at Constantinople it appeared 
that he still nourished the same resentment, alleging 
as a cause some offensive depreciation of Areobindus 
and Aspar by Maximin, detracting from their achieve- 
ments in war, on account of the insignificance of the 
barbarians to whom they had been opposed, which he 
looked upon as an insult to himself and his countrymen. 
§ 39. On the way they had met Bigilas returning 
from Constantinople, and had informed him of the 
result of their mission. When Bigilas reached the 
quarter where Attila was then sojourning, he was seized 
by persons who had received previous directions to that 
effect, and the money which he was bringing for Edecon 
was taken from him. Being brought before Attila, 
he was asked, for what purpose he had brought so much 
gold ; to which he replied, that he had brought it to 
supply himself and his companions with horses and other 



414 ATTILA, 

necessaries on the road, and with a view to ransom 
several captives, by whose relations he had been stre- 
nuously entreated ; but Attila addressing him said, 
" Nevertheless, O malignant wild beast, thou shalt not 
" by thy sophistry escape judgment, nor will any pretext 
" be sufficient to screen thee from the infliction of 
" punishment, for the money which thou hast in store 
" is infinitely greater than necessary for thy expences, 
<c or the purchase of horses and beasts of burden, or 
" even for the ransom of captives, all which moreover 
*' I forbad thee when thou earnest with Maximin." 
Having thus said, he ordered the son of Bigilas, who 
had been then for the first time brought to the Hunnish 
court, to be hewn down with the sword, unless he should 
forthwith declare unto whom and for what purpose he 
was bringing so much gold. But, when Bigilas beheld 
his son about to suffer death, he began to weep and 
lament, and cry out that justice demanded that he should 
be smitten with the sword, and not his son who was 
innocent of all offence ; and without further delay he 
confessed all the things that had been devised between 
himself and Edecon, the eunuch Chrysaphius and the 
emperor, again imploring that he might be executed 
and not his son. Attila knowing from the previous 
report of Edecon that Bigilas had spoken the truth, 
directed him to be kept in chains, and threatened that 
he would not set him free, until his son should have 
been sent to Constantinople, and should have brought 
back other five hundred pieces of gold for their ran- 
som. He therefore remained in custody, and his son 
was sent together with Orestes and Eslas to Constan- 
tinople. 



AND HIS PREDECESSORS. 415 

§ 40. The purse,* in which the gold had been brought 
by Bigilas, was delivered to Edecon, and he was ordered 
by Attila to suspend it to his neck, and thus to enter 
the presence of the emperor, and having shewn it to 
ask Chrysaphius whether he recognized it. Eslas was 
ordered to state that Theodosius was indeed the son 
of a noble father, and that Attila was also of noble birth, 
and had well sustained the nobility inherited from his 
father Mundiuc, but that Theodosius had fallen from 
his dignified station by submitting to pay tribute to him, 
and was become his slave ; and that he therefore acted 
ill in devising secret snares like a wicked domestic 
against his superior, whom fortune had given him for 
his master. That Attila would not forgive the offence 
committed by him, unless the eunuch Chrysaphius were 
delivered up to undergo condign punishment. The 
storm, which was soon to burst on Chrysaphius, threat- 
ened him from more than one quarter ; on the one side 
Attila demanded his life, on the other Zeno, incensed 
against the minister on account of the act of his master, 
who had confiscated to the public treasury the property 
of the daughter of Saturninus, whom Zeno had married 
to his dependant. Theodosius had ordered the confis- 
cation, being stung by the report of Maximin, who had 
stated that Attila had said that the emperor ought to 
fulfil his promise and give the lady to Constantius, for 
that no one amongst his subjects could have power to 
betroth her in contravention of his authority and engage- 
ments ; that if the man who had dared to do so had not 
already suffered punishment for his temerity, the em- 



Priscus, 1. § 6. 



416 ATTILA, 

peror was a slave to his own servants, and that he would 
willingly afford him assistance to emancipate him from 
their dominion. 

§ 41. The party of Chrysaphius, however, being pre- 
valent at the court of Theodosius, it was determined to 
despatch to Attila Anatolius master of the royal guard, 
who had proposed the terms of peace which had been 
concluded with the Huns, and Nomus having the title 
of master of the forces; both numbered amongst the 
patricians who had precedence over regular military rank. 
Nomus was sent with Anatolius, because he was very 
friendly to Chrysaphius, and Attila well disposed to 
receive him, and because he was also a man of great 
wealth, and was never sparing of money, when he had 
any object to accomplish. They were directed to use 
every endeavour to mollify Attila, and persuade him 
to adhere to the treaty which had been concluded ; and 
to promise Constantius a wife in every respect as desi- 
rable as the lady of whom he had been disappointed ; 
assuring him that the daughter of Saturninus had been 
averse to the alliance proposed, and was lawfully wedded 
to another ; and that the Roman law did not authorise 
the betrothment of a woman to any man without her 
own consent. Chrysaphius sent a present of gold to 
pacify the offended monarch. The mission of Theodo- 
sius having crossed the Danube proceeded through the 
territory of the Huns as far as the Drencon or Drecon ; 
for Attila, through respect for Anatolius and Nomus 
whom he esteemed, advanced towards them and met 
them on the banks of that river, to save them a further 
journey. At first he spoke to them in the most over- 
bearing tone, but at length their gifts and conciliatory 



AND HIS PREDECESSORS. 417 

language prevailed over his irritated temper, and he 
consented to keep the peace, and gave up to the Romans 
all the land he claimed to the south of the Danube, and 
waived his demands for the restoration of fugitives, on 
condition that the Romans should pledge themselves to 
receive none in future. He also set free Bigilas, having 
received the 500 pounds of gold which his son had 
brought with the embassy ; and he further, to shew his 
kindness towards Nomus and Anatolius, liberated several 
captives without any ransom ; and he dismissed the 
ambassadors with presents of horses and skins of wild 
beasts, such as were usually worn for ornament by the 
Scythian kings. Oonstantius was directed to proceed 
with them on their return to Constantinople, that he 
might obtain without further delay, the rich heiress 
promised to him by the emperor ; nor was the secretary 
unsuccessful in this expedition, but consummated his 
nuptials with the widow of Armatius, the son of Plinthas, 
who had been a Roman general and consul. The lady 
was both rich and noble, and espoused Constantius at 
the request of the emperor. It is impossible to contem- 
plate these transactions, of which Priscus, who was 
engaged in them, has left such minute particulars, 
without blushing at the perfidious villainy of the Chris- 
tian court, and admiring the noble magnanimity and 
moderation of the pagan on this occasion ; but it was 
perhaps the policy of Attila to represent his own life to 
be so protected by the great destinies for which he pre- 
tended to have been fore-doomed, that such attempts 
against it were very unimportant and certain of ending 
in discomfiture ; and it might be more for his interest 
to treat them with scorn, than to attract attention to 

2 E 



418 ATTILA, 

them by a public execution. In the whole career of his 
life he was disposed to clemency when it did not militate 
against the success of his undertakings, but inexorable 
and remorseless where it was his interest to disarm oppo- 
sition by the terror of his exterminating vengeance. 
The indiscriminate slaughter of the inhabitants of a 
town captured after an obstinate defence, might deter 
another from resisting, but he' must have been aware 
that those, who had entered into a direct conspiracy 
against his life, must have done so with the certain 
expectation of crucifixion if they should fail ; and that 
the punishment, if inflicted, would add nothing to the 
motives which necessarily existed to deter men from 
engaging in so desperate an undertaking; and that 
treating it lightly, as a vain and impracticable scheme 
which it was not worth his while to punish, might be the 
best mode of deterring the superstitious from attempting 
it. It is most remarkable that his personal respect and 
deference for Nomus and Anatolius should have won 
from him in the plenitude of his strength and at the 
very moment when he must have been most irritated by 
the treacherous and disgusting designs of Theodosius, 
concessions which would in vain have been sought for 
by an appeal to arms. 

§ 42. The empire, however, though relieved from the 
immediate fear of Attila, was threatened with internal 
dissensions, and Zeno became a formidable rival to his 
master. The sword of Attila, though sheathed, was 
ever ready for fresh contests, and he appears to have 
been in the following year (A.D. 450) excited to new 
threats of invasion, in consequence of the non-payment 
of the stipulated tribute by the emperor. Apollonius, 



AND HIS. PREDECESSORS. 419 

brother to Rufus then defunct, to whom Zeno had given 
the daughter of Saturninus, friendly to Zeno upon that 
account, and bearing the rank of general, was despatched 
to pacify Attila; but, having crossed the Danube, he 
was denied access to him : for Attila was enraged at the 
retention of the tribute, which he said had been ar- 
ranged and agreed upon by men better and more worthy 
to reign than Theodosius, and he therefore rejected the 
ambassador, to shew his contempt for the emperor ; but, 
although he refused to admit his messenger, or to enter 
into any negociation, he nevertheless ordered the gifts 
of Theodosius to be sent to him, and threatened Apol- 
lonius with death if he should deny them. The 
ambassador however shewed a spirit worthy of the 
ancient fortunes of Rome, and replied, that it did not 
become the Scythians to ask for what they must take 
either as gifts, or as plunder ; signifying that he was 
ready to give them if his embassy was received, but that 
the Huns must take them as booty if they thought fit 
to assassinate him. Attila, however, though he frequently 
indulged in such threats, appears in fact to have always 
respected the immunity conferred on ambassadors by 
the common consent of nations ; and the high-minded 
Roman was dismissed without having been admitted 
into his presence. 

§ 43. Theodosius did not live to feel the effects of 
the anger of Attila, from whom it is probable that he 
withheld the promised tribute in consequence of the 
exhausted state of his finances, rather than a determina- 
tion to brave his animosity. A fall from his horse 
terminated the life of this inglorious and degraded 
emperor. His sister Pulcheria, was proclaimed empress 

2 E 2 



420 ATTILA, 

without opposition, although there had been no previous 
instance of a female succeeding to the throne ; and the 
first act of her reign was the execution of Chrysaphius 
without a legal trial, before the gates of Constantinople. 
Fearful however of swaying the sceptre of the East 
without the support of a stronger arm at so critical a 
period, she immediately espoused the senator Marcian, 
a Thracian about sixty years of age, who had served 
with credit under Aspar and Ardaburius ; but, though 
she invested him by this political union with the impe- 
rial purple, she compelled him in wedlock to respect the 
religious vow which she had made of perpetual virginity. 
As soon as Attila heard of the accession of Marcian to 
the throne, he sent to demand the stipulated tribute, but 
Marcian adopted a higher tone than his predecessor, 
and replied that he did not hold himself bound by the 
humiliating concessions of Theodosius ; that he would 
send presents to him, if he kept the peace, but, if he 
threatened war, he would oppose to him arms and men 
by no means inferior to his own forces. At this period 
the intrigue of Honoria with Attila had been discovered, 
and had brought down upon her the indignation and 
vengeance of either empire. The extract, which is 
extant from the history of Priscus, relating to this sub- 
ject, refers to a previous relation of the circumstances 
which had taken place, but, that being lost, their parti- 
culars can only be imperfectly collected or surmised 
from subsequent allusions. At the voluptuous court of 
Ravenna, that princess celebrated for her beauty and her 
incontinence, while she continued still under the guar- 
dianship of Placidia her mother and her brother Valen- 
tinian, in the very spring of her youth, sixteen years 



AND HIS PREDECESSORS. 4*21 

before this period, had been found pregnant by her 
chamberlain Eugenius, and had been disgracefully sent 
from thence to Constantinople, to be immured in the 
secluded chambers of Pulcheria the sister of Theodosius, 
who had made a vow of singleness, and dwelt in a sworn 
society of holy virgins. Weary of the monotonous and 
hopeless mode of life in which her youth was thus passing 
away, under the tutelage of her harsh and sanctified 
relation, she had probably at a much earlier period, 
made a tender to Attila of her hand and pretensions to 
the throne of Rome, and that offer, to which on his first 
accession to the throne, he had paid little attention, had 
been renewed a little before this period, when his ma- 
tured designs against the empire rendered such an 
alliance important, as a ground whereon to rest his 
claims. The message was carried to Attila by an 
eunuch despatched by the princess secretly from Con- 
stantinople with a letter and a ring, which he was in- 
structed to deliver, but the exact date of the occurrence 
is not recorded. At the moment of the accession of 
Marcian to the throne, the correspondence of Honoria 
with the Hun was by some accident brought to light. 
The unfortunate and guilty princess was regarded with 
abhorrence by the Christians, and previously to her 
being sent back to Italy and placed in strict confinement 
at Ravenna, she was compelled to give her hand in 
marriage to some person who was selected for that 
purpose, in order to render her union with Attila unlaw- 
ful and impracticable. The records are lost which 
would have informed us who and what the bridegroom 
was, but it is pretty evident that the ceremony only was 
performed, and that the marriage was not consummated ; 



422 ATTILA 3 

and as it was certainly not intended that she should 
ever avail herself of the privileges of a married woman, 
the husband selected for her was probably an obscure 
and perhaps a blind old man, for the extinction of the 
eyes was the usual mode of disqualifying a man to wear 
the imperial purple of Constantinople. In the passage 
of Priscus which is preserved, and which evidently refers 
to a detailed account of the transactions, he says that 
when the things which had been done concerning her 
were reported to Attila, he immediately sent ambassa- 
dors to Valentinian emperor of the West, to assert that 
Honoria had been guilty of no unbecoming conduct, 
inasmuch as he had entered into an engagement to 
marry her, and that he would take up arms in her 
cause, unless she were admitted to hold the sceptre of 
the empire. The Romans answered that it was not 
possible for him to espouse Honoria, who had been 
given to another man, and that she had no right to the 
throne, for the Roman dynasty consisted of a succession 
of males, and not of females : an answer which singu- 
larly contrasts with the contemporaneous and undisputed 
elevation of Pulcheria to the sister throne of Byzantium, 
occasioned perhaps by some intrigues for the downfall 
of Chrysaphius. The rejection of the demands of Attila 
by Marcian had been softened by presents, and probably 
the refusal of Honoria's hand was accompanied by like 
appeasement. According to the Alexandrine or Paschal 
chronicle, and to John of Antioch * surnamed Malellas, 
Attila sent to either emperor a Gothic messenger, 
saying, " My lord and thine commands thee through 

* Chronograph, pt. 2. p. 22. 



AND HIS PREDECESSORS. 423 

me to make ready thy palace for his reception." Ma- 
lellas mentions Theodosius, who was dead at this time ; 
but the account is probably referable to the simulta- 
neous summons which he sent to Constantinople and 
Rome immediately after the death of that emperor. 

§ 44. The views of Attila extended to the subjuga- 
tion of the Medes and Persians, the Eastern and Western 
empires, and the Gothic and Franc kingdoms in France 
and Spain, which would have left him without a rival 
between the boundaries of China, or at least of the 
Tartars, and the Atlantic ocean : but he was awhile 
doubtful against which of those powers he should first 
turn his arms. Genseric the formidable king of the 
Vandals, who had wrested from Rome her African pos- 
sessions, excited him to attack Theodoric king of the 
Visigoths, whose capital was Tolosa, the modern Tou- 
louse. The daughter of Theodoric had been married to 
Hunneric the son of the Vandal monarch, who was so 
savage in his disposition, and inhuman even towards his 
own offspring, that on a bare suspicion that she had 
mixed poison for him, he cut off her nostrils and sent 
her back mutilated to her father. Fearing therefore 
the vengeance of Theodoric, he exerted himself by ne- 
gociation and ample presents to draw upon his antagonist 
the overwhelming armies of the Hun. The subsidy 
offered by Genseric probably determined Attila to com- 
mence his operations by the subjugation of Gaul, where 
he would have to attack the Francs of Meroveus, the 
Alans under Sangiban, the Gallic empire of Theodoric 
extending from his capital Tolosa into Spain, and the 
Roman province which was defended by the flower of 
the Roman army under the celebrated A'etius. The 



424 ATTILA, 

pretext for this invasion was the restitution of Alberon, 
the son and rightful heir of Clodion lately deceased, to 
the throne of his father in the north of France, from 
whence he had been expelled by the arts of the bastard 
Merov'eus. Previous to his undertaking this memorable 
expedition, Attila held a plenar court or comitia in 
Thuringia at Erfurt, (for * Eisenach, which has been 
named as the place where they were held, is perhaps a 
town of later origin) probably for the especial purpose of 
hearing the plaint of Basina the widow of Clodion, who 
had fled with her sons to the court of her brother Basi- 
nus in Thuringia. 

§ 45. Eudoxius,f a physician, had been drawn into a 
faction of rebels in Gaul, who, being pushed to extremities 
by the extortions of the nobles and clergy, had first re- 

* Sagittarius (Epist. p. 14.) observes that he knows no authority for 
the comitia at Eisenach, except the old German annalist cited by 
Wolfgang Lazius, and asks, if Eisenach be so ancient, why the old 
Franc historians say nothing concerning it ; which is however not a 
very conclusive objection. The passage to which he alludes in W. 
Lazius, (de gent, migrat. p. 643.) written in old German, asserts that 
after his campaign in Flanders and Fi'ance, Attila put to death Ursula 
daughter of the king of Britannia with 11,000 virgins at Cologne on the 
Rhine, and then proceeded to hold a court at Eisenach. Calvisius in 
his Chronologicum Universale states that Attila held comitia at Eisenach 
in 449,. which is the very year after the death of Clodion. A. D. 449, 
Attila ex oriente in occidentem fertur et in Thuringiam proficiscitur, 
ubi Isnaci comitia agit, in quibus ducibus suis mandat, ut Nordmannos, 
Frisios, Cimbros, et alios suo imperio subjiciant. Habuit autem Attila 
quatuor suorum nunciorum stationes, primam Colonise Agrippinse, 
(Cologne) alteram Jadera? in Dalmatia, tertiam in Lithuania, quartam 
in Scythia ad fluvium Tanaim ; unde res toto orbe terrarum gestas cog- 
nosces potuit. — Constitutiones Imperiales cit. Cabisius Chron.p. 597-8 „ 

t See Salvianus De Dei Gubernatione, Prosper Tyro, and Aventinu& 
Ann. B. 1. 2. 227. 



AND HIS PREDECESSORS. 425 

volted in the reign of Dioclesian under the denomination 
of Bagaudae, and had since made head under the guid- 
ance of Tibato against the Roman authority. They 
were everywhere defeated and severely handled, and 
Eudoxius was the only man of importance amongst the 
movers of that sedition who escaped, and he took refuge 
at the Hunnish court. He is described as a bad, but 
able, man ; and from him it is supposed that Attila re- 
ceived much information concerning the actual state of 
Gaul, and encouragement to attempt its invasion. It is 
observable, that the organization of the faction called 
Bagaudae seems to have been the only popular attempt 
to vindicate civil rights under the domination of the 
Western emperors. Meroveus, against whom the arms 
of Attila were now directed, was the illegitimate son of 
Clodion, and his master of the horse. The dynasty of 
the Marcomirians ended with Clodion the son of Phara- 
mond and grandson of Marcomir ; and Meroveus, a 
traitor, an usurper, and alien to the blood royal, being 
illegitimate, founded a new dynasty. Fredegarius, (Greg. 
Turon. cit. Mem. des inscriptions, 30. p. 559.) writing in 
641, says that the mother of Meroveus was bathing on 
the coast and was attacked by a sea-monster, who became 
the father of Meroveus. This fable has evident relation 
to his illegitimacy. The writer who there cites Fredega- 
rius from Gregory of Tours considers the Marobudos or 
Maroboduus who lived in the time of Augustus and 
Tiberius to have been an earlier Meroveus, the former 
name being the Augustan, the latter the recent Gallo- 
Latin version of the Teutonic name Maerwu or Merwu. 
He also shews that the Merovingian kings called them- 
selves by that title, (which makes it appear that they 



426 ATTILA, 

affected to be a new dynasty, and not inheritors from 
Clodion) by authorities dating A.D. 641 as above, A.D. 
645 and 720, the last being thirty years before the re- 
storation of the rightful heirs by the elevation of Pepin. 
Mezeray states that Clodion left three sons (the eldest 
having died) Alberon, Regnault, and Rangcaire, who 
were too young to reign, and therefore the states elected 
Meroveus his bastard son. He boasts of his exploits in 
the Catalaunian victory, of which he attributes the prin- 
cipal honour to him, but entirely suppresses the cause of 
that war, which was to re-establish the rightful king 
whom he had expelled : and he adds incorrectly that, 
when firmly fixed in Gaul, he went to succour the sons 
of Clodion and establish them in Hainault, Brabant, and 
Namur ; saying that on his return from that expedition 
he died in the tenth year of his reign in 458. The 
historian Priscus,* who was at the court of Attila on an 
embassy in 448, when Clodion was alive or on the point 
of death, never saw Alberon the rightful heir, who had 
not at that time had recourse to the Huns. At some 
antecedent period not ascertained, he had however seen 

* Concerning the sons of Clodion, Gibbon simply states on the autho- 
rity of Priscus that the eldest was in the camp of Attila, and the 
youngest, (Meroveus) whom Priscus had seen at Rome, had in concert 
with Aetius obtained possession of the throne. He does not appear to have 
known the name of the other son or any thing concerning the offspring 
of Clodion, but what he gathered from the few words of Priscus, and 
Foncemagne's paper in the Memoires des inscriptions, which he says 
settles the point that Meroveus was the younger son of Clodion. It is 
however a most crude paper, containing no information or references 
on the subject, but merely arguing to shew the identity of the nameless 
person designated by Priscus as the younger son of Clodion, and the 
king Meroveus who gave his name to the Merovingian dynasty, a point 
which may be readily conceded. 



AND HIS PREDECESSORS. 427 

Meroveus on an embassy at Rome, a beardless youth 
with long yellow hair falling over his shoulders, and he 
says that Aetius, having adopted him as his son and 
loaded him with gifts, despatched him to the emperor to 
acquire his friendship and enjoy his society in martial 
exercises. There is some obscurity however in the pas- 
sage, for the word 7rp£o-/3euo/i£voe, acting the part of a 
legate, must apply to a mission from the Francs, and 
could not refer to his visit at the court of Valentinian 
under the recommendation of the Roman general 
Aetius. It seems that Priscus meant that Meroveus 
was at Rome as an ambassador when he saw him, and 
was at some subsequent period sent by Aetius to carouse 
with Valentinian, probably at Ravenna. Looking to 
the subtle character and constant double dealing of 
Aetius, it can scarcely be doubted, that when he adopted 
Meroveus and sent him to Valentinian, he had intended 
to sow future dissensions in the family of Clodion, and 
to make use of Meroveus for the furtherance of his own 
schemes, whether against the inheritance of the Franc 
king or against the throne of Valentinian, or, as is most 
probable, against both : and, in directing him to be pre- 
sented to the emperor as the son of Clodion, with a view 
to the acquisition of his society and friendship, it is not 
likely that either Aetius or Meroveus should have put 
forward his illegitimacy ; nor was it probable that Pris- 
cus, a Greek sophist of Constantinople, accidentally 
seeing this beardless young Franc at Rome, should have 
been informed at the time of his spurious birth. When 
Meroveus seized the throne and expelled Alberon who 
fled to the Huns, it was a matter of notoriety to all 
Europe that Alberon was the rightful heir and eldest. 



428 ATTILA, 

son of Clodion, and if Priscus was not aware of the ille- 
gitimacy of Meroveus, he must have concluded that he 
was younger than him to whom the inheritance apper- 
tained. His silence as to the name of the banished king 
is proof that he had not very ample information con- 
cerning the transaction, and perhaps only knew the little 
which he states ; and, living at Constantinople far from 
the scene of action, he may have fallen very naturally 
into an error on the point of seniority. If Meroveus had 
succeeded to the throne of his lawful father, though to 
the prejudice of an elder brother, his accession would 
not have been that of a new dynasty, and, instead of 
being called Merovingian kings, he and his descendants 
would from the first have been named after Pharamond 
the sire or Marcomir the grandsire of Clodion. The 
brief expression therefore of Priscus, that the elder son 
of Clodion sought the assistance of the Huns, the younger 
that of Aetius, is insufficient to outweigh the far greater 
probability of the fact as related by other writers, that 
Meroveus was in fact the oldest, though not the legiti- 
mate, son of Clodion. The lineal genealogy runs thus: — 
1. Marcomir. — 2. Pharamond. — 3. Clodion who died 
448.-4. Alberon, d. 491.— 5. Wambert, d. 528.-6. 
Ambert, d. 570. (collateral Wambert 2.) — 7. Arnold, d. 
601.— 8. St. Arnulf, d. 641.—9. Ansegisus, d. 685.— 
10. Pepin, d. 714.— 11. Charles Martell, d. 741.— 12. 
Pepin, d. 768. — 13. Charlemain, and so on, till the oc- 
cupation of the throne by Hugh Capet in 987, when the 
Marcomirian line became extinct. John Bertels abbot 
of Epternach collected all the traditions and chronicles ■ 
he could find in the convents of Luxemberg and Ar- 
dennes. He states that Clodion Capillatus married 



AND HIS PREDECESSORS. 429 

Basina daughter of Widelph duke of the Thuringians, 
probably sister to Basinus who was duke when Attila 
was in Thuringia. She bore him four sons, Phrison, 
Alberon or Auberon, Reginald, and Rauchas. Phrison 
died very young of an arrow-shot, and the grief of that 
loss hastened the death of his father. Clodion by his 
will appointed his bastard son Meroveus, who was his 
master of the horse, to be regent and guardian of his 
sons. For some years he acted with fidelity, but when 
the Roman arms were pressing on the Francs, he ten- 
dered his resignation, declining the responsibility of ad- 
ministering the affairs of another person in such a crisis, 
and knowing that his authority and skill were necessary 
at the moment. The result was conformable to his ex- 
pectations. The Francs proclaimed him king, and he 
took the crown, whereupon queen Basina sent her three 
sons for safety to Thuringia. Some years afterwards 
Alberon took counsel how he should recover his rights 
and destroy Meroveus and his progeny ; Meroveus at 
the same time meditating the like against him and his 
kindred. With these views Alberon married Argotta 
daughter of Theodemir king of the Goths, formed a 
strict alliance with the Goths, Vandals, Bohems, and 
Ostrogoths, and by their aid recovered possession of Ar- 
duenna, Lower Alsatia, Brabantia, Cameracum, and 
Turnacum, and obtained the title of Rex Cameracensis. 
His chief residence however was in the Nemus Carbo- 
narium, a part of the forest of Ardennes, where he 
sacrificed to idols and fortified Mons Hannoniae (Mons 
in Hainault), as an asylum against the malice of Mero- 
veus. Argotta bore him Wambert, who married a 
daughter of the emperor Zeno. A lieutenant under 



430 ATTILA, 

Clovis conquered Brabant and Flanders about the year 
492, and took king Alberon and his two brothers prisoners, 
whom the French king barbarously slew with his own 
hand, as soon as they were brought into his presence. 
He afterwards affected remorse, and endeavoured to 
allure Wambert into his power, in order to cut off the 
last remnant of Clodion's legitimate heirs. Wambert 
was however too wary, and placed his sons Wambert 
and Anselbert (or Ambert), under the safeguard of 
Theodoric king of Italy and the emperor Zeno who 
made them senators of the Eastern empire. About A. D. 
520 Wambert recovered Ardennes and Hainault, to 
which possessions the senator Wambert the second suc- 
ceeded on his death in 528, by favour of Childebert king 
of Paris, who also gave Anselbert the marquisate of 
Moselle and Scheld, of which the seat of government 
was on the latter river. The senator Wambert, who es- 
poused St. Clotilda daughter of Almeric king of Italy, 
was succeeded by a third Wambert his son. Such is 
the statement of # Bertels The only inaccuracy, which 
appears on the face of it, is that the events, which took 
place between the death of Clodion in 448, and the 
flight of Alberon to the Huns previous to Attila's invasion 
of Gaul in 451, a space of only three years, appear to be 
extended over a longer, though indefinite, period. With 
this limitation, that Meroveus could not have continued 
faithful above two years, and that Alberon immediately 
sought assistance to recover his rights, there is no reason 
to doubt that the account of Bertels is substantially 
correct. He was unacquainted with the writings of 

* Bertelii Ducatus Luxemlmrgensis. Anst. 1634. p. 193. p. 294. p. 317. 



AND HIS PREDECESSORS. 431 

Priscus, and appears to have known nothing about Attila 
and his Huns ; yet, except what relates to the inferior 
age of Meroveus, he affords collateral evidence from 
quite different sources, which is confirmed by the account 
of the Greek sophist ; for it is evident that the Goths, 
&c with whom Bertels states Alberon to have made 
alliance, were the great confederacy of nations headed 
by Attila and brought by him on the occasion of the dis- 
puted succession of Clodion into the celebrated field of 
Chalons. The Thuringian # writers of the middle ages 
make mention of the movements of Attila, and state 
that he was in Thuringia and at Eisenach. The Danish 
writer, professor Suhm, f referring to the Thuringian 
authors, states his disbelief of the existence of Eisenach 
in the days of Attila, and thinks that Erfurt, anciently 
called Bicurgium, was the place intended. Sidonius 
Apollinaris J mentions Toringus (the Thuringian) amongst 
the people who invaded Belgium under the command 
of Attila. German histories unknown to Bertelius and 
only seen in MS. by Lazius, affirm that Attila held a 
diet of his kings and dukes in Thuringia before he set 
out to invade Gaul. Putting these concurrent accounts 
together, it seems that Attila held a diet in Thuringia, 
where he heard the plaint of queen Basina and her 
sons, and proceeded to act thereupon. Henning § in 
his Universal Genealogy gives the following statement. 

Clodio crinitus had, by , Meroveus, who married 

Verica daughter of Guntraum king of Sweden, and died 

* See Abels Chron. p. 39. Sagittarius de antiquo statu Thuringiae, 
p. 13-14. Ej. Ant. Regn. Thur. p. 167-183. 

t Historie om de fva Norden udvandrede folk. Copenh. 1773. vol. 2. 
p. 126. | Carm. 7. v. 323. § Tom. 4. p. 8. 



432 ATTILA, 

A. D. 458, and by Basina daughter of Widelph king of 
Thuringia Albero or Alberic from whom the Carlovin- 
gians are descended, Rauches or Roches lord of Cam- 
bray, and Reginald king of the Eburi who married 
Wamberga daughter of Alaric the first king of the Visi- 
goths in Spain. Albero warred under Attila, hoping to 
recover the sceptre of his father, of which his brother 
Meroveus had taken forcible possession. Being defeated 
he retreated to his own people, (meaning his Belgic or 
Cameracan subjects) being careful not to fall into the 
hands of Meroveus, and died about 491. 

§ 46. Brother James of Guise (Chron. de Haynau, vol. 
2. Paris 1531. fol. 17—20.) relates that Clodion king 
of the Francs had by his wife, daughter of the king of 
Austrien (Austracia) and Toringien, four sons. He 
made a certain Meroveus his master of the horse. Soon 
after, besieging Soissons, he lost his eldest son, and, 
being much afflicted, died also. Previously he assem- 
bled his nobles, and assigned to his wife and each of his 
three remaining sons their portions, and gave them into 
the keeping of Meroveus. Meroveus enlarged the 
kingdom by conquest; afterwards, some enemies invad- 
ing it, he said to the people, " I am not your king, and 
" I will no longer be the guardian, for I have already 
" incurred more cost than I can pay ; therefore provide 
" for the country as you will." Consequently the Francs 
raised him to the throne. He straightways summoned 
all the soldiers that were on furlough, and drove out 
the enemy. The widow of Clodion, with two of her 
sons, fled to Thuringia and Austracia. When big 
enough, they redemanded the kingdom, and had some 
combats with Meroveus. By the assistance of the Huns, 



AND HIS PREDECESSORS. 433 

Goths, Ostrogoths, Armoricans, Saxons, and many 
others, they won back from Meroveus the lands their 
father had assigned them, beginning from Austracia to 
the Alsatic mountains, and from the south of Burgundy 
to the Rhine, and westward to Rheims, Laon, Cambray, 
and Tournay, and on the north to the ocean, which 
kingdom was molested by Meroveus and many others. 
From Clodion's three sons, Aubron, Regnauld, and 
Rauchaure, the rulers of Hainault, Loraine, Brabant, 
and Namur, took their origin. Clodion was buried at 
Cambray in 448, according to the rites of the " Sar- 
razins,' , fol. 18. a. He adds that many opinions existed 
touching Meroveus. According to Sigebert he was the 
son of Clodion; Andreas Marcianensis styled him his 
kinsman (son afin, meaning afnnis) ; Phistoire des Fran- 
cois states that he was not his son, but nevertheless 
descended from the Trojans, and that he was a useful 
king, from whom were derived the Francs called Mero- 
vingians, who held the kingdom against the heirs of 
Clodion. Almericus states that after Bleda's death, the 
widow of Clodion made alliance with the Huns and 
Ostrogoths, gave them a part of her land, and waged 
war against Meroveus. Brother James continues to say 
that in 453 (he should have said 451) Attila, accompanied 
by Walamir king of the Ostrogoths, and Arderic king 
of the Gepidae, and many of their dependants from the 
quarter of the wind aquilon, left Pannonia and invaded 
Gaul, fol. 18. b. Alberic or Aubron, second son of 
Clodion, was a man of such subtlety, knowledge, acti- 
vity, and prowess, that he often worsted the Merovin- 
gians, who usurped and held his country. He commonly 

sojourned in the woods, and sacrificed to Gods and God- 

o F 






434 ATTILA, 

desses, and re-established the pagan worship in his territo- 
ries, for he thought the Gods in whom he trusted would 
give him back his kingdom; because Mars and Jove 
had once appeared to him, and declared that to himself, 
or to his lineage, all the dominions of his father should 
be restored. Thereupon he began assiduously to rebuild 
the decayed cities and castles, Estrasburg which was 
dismantled of walls, Thulle, Espinal, Mersasse, and the 
leaden baths at Espinal; in the forest of Dogieuse a 
castle and temples; near the Alsatic mountains and 
forests the same ; in the centre of his kingdom in Ardenne, 
the altar, temple, and castle of Namur; the temple of 
Mercury, now chateau Sanson,' and other impregnable 
forts ; in the foret Carboniere many, such as Chateaulieu, 
where on the mount he built a square tower, and called 
it from himself Aubron. On the same mount, near 
the town, he dug a well which is still there. He built 
a temple of Minerva on a hill, now mount St. Audebert, 
but then mount Auberon, but which the Christians now 
call la houppe Auberon; in the forest of Dicongue a 
temple of the idol, and called it by his own name. By 
the aid of the Saxons he beat the Merovingians in the 
foret Carboniere near Chateaulieu, now called Monts 
en Haynau, and he named the spot Merowinge, and 
the inhabitants now call it Meuwin. He beat them 
again at a place called Mirewault, and the Merovingians 
said the Gods of the forest gave him victory, and there- 
upon remained a long time at peace with him. They 
styled him enchanteur or fel. He had several children ; 
the eldest Waubert, who was king of the Austracians, 
and inherited all his father's lands and defended them 
valiantly. Aubron died old, and was buried with Sarrazin 



AND HIS PREDECESSORS. 435 

rites in the mount called la houppe Auberon, upon 
which great trees are now planted, fol. 20. a. Clovis 
invaded the lands of the king of Cambray called Rau- 
chaire, brother of Auberon, and at last he and his brothers 
Richier and Regnault, were betrayed into his power, and 
slain by his own hand, and he persecuted their connexions. 
fol. 20. b. Here is an evident blunder, in the calling 
Rauchaire instead of Auberon, king of Cambray, and 
then to make up the number, repeating the name Rau- 
chaire with a difference of orthography, as Richier, and 
thus making five sons of Basina, instead of four, the 
eldest having been killed at the siege of Soissons in the 
life-time of Clodion. The history thus given contains 
ample confirmation to the relation of Bertels, with a 
similar protraction of the period between the death of 
Clodion, and the attempt of Alberon to recover his 
throne, which is in some degree accounted for by placing 
in 453 the Hunnish invasion, which actually took place 
in 451. That Meroveus did not pretend to be the 
legitimate son of Clodion, is evident from the expression 
of Gregory Tours, who flourished in the next century, 
and might even have conversed with persons who had 
seen * Meroveus, and merely says that he was " as some 



* Bertels in his larger history of Luxembourg says, that one Austra- 
sius, Clovis's lieutenant, being fiereely attacked in battle by Alberon 
and his brothers, resisted so bravely that he gained the victory, and the 
brothers of Alberon were taken prisoners and loaded with chains, whom 
Clovis, when they were brought before him, slew with his own hand, 
and seized their possessions without opposition from any one. The 
index has Ragnaldus et Richerus Clodionis criniti filii a Clodoveo rege 
trucidantur. p. 5. Colon. 1605. He gives there no account of Alberon'fi 
death, though the circumstance of there being no one left to oppose the 
seizure of the territory seems to imply his death ; in his smaller edition 

2 F 2 



436 ATTILA, 

assert, of the stock of Clodion," ex stirpe, ut quidam 
asserunt, Clodionis. No reliance can be placed on the 
relation of any French writer of later times, for, without 
citing any satisfactory authorities, they all avoid the 
true point, and falsify the history, so strangely does 
nationality and a desire to make out the dynasty of their 
kings to have been legitimate appear to have warped 
and prejudiced their understandings ; in the same man- 
ner that we find the Danish historians when they meet 
with the name of Attila king of the Huns, in their most 
ancient legends of events, which they themselves refer 
to the exact period of his Gallic invasion, shutting their 
eyes against the true history, and saying that this Attila 
was a petty king over some Huns in Groningen, because 
they will not acknowledge that which Priscus, who was 
personally acquainted with Attila, asserts, that his domi- 
nion extended to the Baltic or islands of the ocean, and 
consequently that he was, as appears also from the title 
he assumed, king of the Danes. That Meroveus was 
received at Rome as the son of Clodion, is clear by the 
testimony of Priscus ; that he was illegitimate and older 
than the rightful heir, is established by the local chroni- 
cles and the greater probability of the fact. Whether 
Alberon was put to death as well as his brothers by 
Clovis, or fell in the previous battle, and was buried in 
the Houppe d' Aubron, appears to be a matter of some 
doubt, which perhaps might be solved at this day, by 

1634, he says that Clodion slew him also. Vorherg (Hist. German. 5. 
605) states three brothers to have been slain by the order of Clovis, 
though he gives to Rauchas (Ragnacharius) the title of king of the 
Atrebates (Artois) and Cameracensee, and calls him the grandson, 
(abnepos) instead of the son, of Clodion. 



AND HIS PREDECESSORS. 437 

opening the supposed place of his interment ; but it is 
not improbable that his name affixed to that mount, as 
a monumental cenotaph, may have given birth to the 
notion that he was buried there, and occasioned the 
omission of his name in some of the accounts of the atro- 
cious act of # Clovis, especially as there is no other 
tradition of the manner of his death, though so many 
particulars of his life are recorded. 

§ 47. When Attila had determined to march his army 
into Gaul, he exerted f himself to sow disunion between 
the Visigoths and Romans. He sent ambassadors to 
Valentinian to assure him in a letter full of blandishment 
that he had no hostile intentions against the Roman 
power in that country, but was marching against Theo- 
doric, and requested that the Romans would not take 
part against him. To Theodoric he wrote at the same 
time, exhorting him to detach himself from his alliance 
with the Romans, and to remember the wars which they 
had lately stirred up against him. Thereupon the 
emperor wrote to Theodoric urging him to act in union 
with him against the common enemy, " who wished to 
reduce the whole world to slavery ; who sought no pre- 
text for invasion, but held whatever his arm could exe- 
cute to be just and right ; who grasped at every thing 
within his compass, and satiated his licentiousness with 
excess of pride." He represented to the Visigoth that 
he ruled over a limb of the Roman empire, and exhorted 
him for his own security to unite with the Romans in 

* Aimoin (Gest. Franc, p. 15.) says that when Clodion died his 
kinsman (affinis) Meroveus succeeded. He mentions (p. 34), that 
Clovis killed Ragnachar king of Cameracum, and his brother Ricanir. 
t Jornandes de Bello Got. c. 3(>. 



438 ATTILA, 

defending their common interests. Theodoric replied, 
" Ye have your wish ; ye have made Attila and me 
" enemies. We will encounter him, whithersoever he 
" shall call us, and, although he may be inflated by di- 
" verse victories over proud nations, haughty as he is, the 
" Goths will know how to contend with him. I call no 
" warfare grievous, except that which its cause renders 
" weak, for * he, on whom majesty has smiled, has no 
" reverse to fear." The chiefs of the Gothic court ap- 
plauded this spirited answer, of which however the last 
words do not convey any very definite meaning. The 
people shouted and followed him, and the Visigoths were 
animated by an ardent desire to measure their strength 
with the conqueror of so many nations. 

§ 48. In the spring of 451 Attila put his immense 
army in motion to effect the invasion of Gaul. Many 
of the nations that marched under him are enumerated 
by f Sidonius ; the Neuri, who are stated by Ammianus 
Marcellinus to have dwelt amongst the Alans in their 
former situations ; the Hcedi, whom Valesius asserts to 
have been a tribe of Huns; the Gepides, Ostrogoths, 
Alans, Bastarnae, Turcilingi, Scirri, Heruli, Rugi, Bel- 
lonoti, Sarmatse, Geloni, Scevi, Burgundiones, Quadi, 
Marcomanni, Savienses or Suavi, Toringi, (Thuringians) 
the Franks who bordered on the river Vierus, and the 
Bructeri, who were considered to be allied to the Francs 
in blood. Aventinus mentions also the Boii, Suevi, and 
Alemanni under king Gibuld. In Henning's Genealo- 
gies it is said that a hundred nations marched under 
Attila. This immense army pursued its course south of 

* Nihil triste pavet, cui majestas arrisit. Jornandes* 
t Sidon. Apoll. carra, 7. v. 327. 



AND HIS PREDECESSORS. 439 

the Danube, and passed through Noricum and the nor- 
thern part of Rhsetia, that is to say the southern parts 
of Bavaria and Suabia. His northern vassals the Rugians, 
Quadi, Marcomanni, Thuringians, and other tribes fol- 
lowed, it seems, a more northerly course, having direc- 
tions to form a junction with him on the Rhine. Near 
the lake of Constance he was probably opposed by and 
routed a portion of the Burgundians, who were in the inte- 
rest of Aetius, and attempted to prevent him from passing 
the Rhine. Aventinus # says that he slew on that occa- 
sion their kings Gundaric and Sigismund, which does 
not appear to be correct, at least with respect to Gundaric. 
The forests of Germany, almost indiscriminately called 
Hercynian, furnished him with timber to construct 
vessels or rafts, on which the immense multitude, which 
constituted his army, was transported across the Rhine. 
Strasburg probably -f first felt the effects of his fury, and 
was levelled to the ground. At a later period, a figure J 
of Attila is said to have been placed over the gate of 
that town, with an inscription A. V. aeta. 47. Sic oculos, 
sic ille manus, sic ora ferebat. Some writers § have 
asserted, that Metz (Divodurum Mediomatricorum) 
was the first place that he destroyed ; thither he certainly 

* Avent. lib. 2. c. 23. 

t Thwrocz. Sebastian Minister, a Jesuit, says that Attila, to punish 
Argentina or Argentoratura for refusing him a passage, threw down 
all its walls and gates, and said, henceforth thou shalt be called Poly- 
hodopolis, city of many roads or thoroughfares, Strats-burg. Whence 
did he derive that Greek name, unless from the copy of Priscus, for- 
merly in the Vatican library ? 

t Schcedelius Notit. Hung. P. 1. § 245. A. V. is interpreted Attila 
Unnus : it has however been suggested that it might have stood for 
Aulus Vitellius. § Had. Valesius. Rer. Franc. 1. 4. 



440 ATTILAy 

proceeded and burnt the town, butchering its inhabitants, 
and the very priests at the altars. His march was di- 
rected towards the Belgian # territory, and, having 
sacked Treves on his route, he overwhelmed the north 
of France, destroying whatever resisted him. Whether 
Tongres and Maestricht were destroyed before f or after 
the battle of Chalons, is not certain. No effectual resis- 
tance could be offered to him by the Francs under 
Merov'eus, and Alberon was speedily reinstated in the 
greater part of the kingdom of Clodion. 

§ 49. At this time Aetius, J having expected that 
Theodoric would have made head against Attila, and 
probably wishing that they might weaken each other by 
the collision, his own forces remaining untouched, while 
Attila was overrunning all Belgium, had scarcely crossed 
the Alps, leading with him a small and very inefficient 
force. But intelligence was brought to him of the un- 
exampled successes of Attila, and that the Visigoths, 
appearing to despise the Huns, whom they had formerly 
beaten when subsidized by Litorius, were awaiting in 
their own territory the attack of the invader, if he should 
think fit to bear down upon them. The active mind of 
Aetius was equal to the arduous position in which he 
stood. He immediately dispatched Avitus to urge 
Theodoric to draw out his force without delay and form 
a junction with him. His exertions were great and 
rapid to collect a force sufficient to make head against 
the conqueror, who was already preparing to fall upon 
the south of France. Theodoric, accompanied by his 

* Sid. Apoll. c. 7. v. 329. 

t Had. Vales. R. F. 1. 4. says they were destroyed at this period. 

t Sid. Apoll. c. 7. v. 330, &c. 



AND HIS PREDECESSORS. 441 

two eldest sons Torismond and Theodoric, took the field, 
having ordered his four younger sons to remain at Tolosa, 
to which he himself was not destined to return. The 
wonderful genius and activity of A'etius, when it suited 
his views to bestir himself, was never more conspicuous 
than on this occasion, when he speedily brought together 
a force equal to that of the Hun. In the allied army 
the Visigoths of Theodoric, the Alans of king Sangiban, 
the Francs of Meroveus, Sarmatians, Armoricans, Bur- 
gundians, Saxons, Litiarii, Riparioli, and several other 
German and Celtic nations were united with the Romans. 
Although the affairs of Attila are conspicuous in the 
Northern legends, it is observable that, in the vast 
concourse of tribes pouring into France from every 
quarter of Europe, no mention is made by any writer 
of Danes, for this simple reason that there was in truth 
no such nation at that period, other than the # Dacians 
from the Danube, notwithstanding the assertions of 
Danish historians. 

* I believe the earliest mention of the name Dani is by Servius, who 
lived a few years before this period, in his commentary on the Eneid, 
8. 728, where he says the Dabse or Dacians dwelt on the confines of 
Persia, and adds, whence they were called Danes, or whence the Danes 
were named, but without any allusion to their location in the North of 
Europe. According to Suhm (Hist, of Danm. t. 1. p. 115.) Dan's father 
was a Goth and his mother a Gete, and he reigned over a mixed people 
consisting of those two races in the year of our Lord 280, having his 
chief seat at Leire in Jutland, said to have been the centre of his king- 
dom j and he says that this Dan gave to the islands of the Baltic the 
general name of Denmark, which he asserts that Scania and Holland 
bore previously ; but the statement rests on no tenable foundation, and 
is based on the use of the word in works that were written many 
centuries after. In the tragic edda of Saemund, one of the oldest 
northern works, but to which an earlier date than the Gth or 7th 
centuries is not assigned, the names Danmbrk and Danskr only occur 
casually in one ode, which also mentions the Lombard*, who were little 



442 ATTILA, 

§ 50. The attack of Paris did not fall within the line 
of Attila's operations, and the Christians subsequently 



known till the 6th century, and the word Danmork is interpreted by 
the commentators to mean a dark or murky extent of wood. The ode 
appears to have no reference to the country now called Denmark. The 
widow of Sigurd the Hun (who is certainly identical with Attila) says 
therein that she rested in Danmork with Thora, and they embroidered 
in gold the southern halls and Danish swans, and the Hunnish warriors 
and royal guards, and in another passage the abode of Attila (under 
his own name), is called the hall of the South. The only other mention 
of the word is in a stanza shortly after, where Daunom occurs, supposed 
to mean amongst Danes or one of the Danes, the preposition being 
omitted, and the passage says that Valdarr of the Danes with Jarisleif, 
and three Eymods with Jariscar companions of the Lombards entered 
and offered her consolation. It is therefore observable that the only 
mention therein of Danmork and Dane refers not to the Baltic, but to 
the affairs of the Huns on the Danube, and that the Danish swans are 
coupled with the southern residence of their monarch on the banks of 
that river. The words should therefore not be translated Danish swans, 
but swans of the Danube or Dacian swans. The Latin translators per- 
vert the text by rendering suthrseni, as meaning Teutonic, though 
wherever the word occurs in the Edda it means simply southern, and in 
one passage where it is coupled with the sunshine, they find it necessary 
to translate it so. The embroidery certainly represented the residence 
and military pomp of the Hunnish king, and the river which flowed by 
its walls was indicated by swans. The Dacians who fled to the north 
from the Hunnish dominions on the Danube carried the name with 
them to the Baltic. There is, I believe, no other proof of the existence 
of the name Dane before the time of Attila; for it must be remembered 
that the application of the name to previous events, whether true or 
false, by persons who lived long after his time, when the name had 
come into general use, is no proof of its ancient application, when it is 
found in no contemporary writer. The commentator on the Edda,, 
wishing to get rid of the mention of the Lombards in the passage alluded 
to, says that the word probably meant Attila under the name of Long- 
beard, as he perhaps wore a long beard. He was not aware that we 
have certain information transmitted to us from Priscus through Jor- 
nandes, that Attila.. whose face was cicatrized, had scarcely any beard j 
he was rarus barba. 



AND HIS PREDECESSORS. 443 

attributed the salvation of that city to the merits of St. 
Genevieve; but Paris was not then a great metropolis. 
The late king Clodion had had his principal seat at Dis- 
pargum, supposed by some to have been Louvain, but 
probably Duysberg * on the right bank of the Rhine. 
It was apparently one of the effects of Attila's invasion, 
by detaching Cambray, Hainault, and the rest of the 
Belgic provinces from the kingdom of Merov'eus, to 
make Paris become the seat of his government. Tolosa, 
the flourishing capital of Theodoric the Visigoth, was an 
object of superior importance to Attila. He had already, 
in pursuance of his intentions, reduced again under the 
authority of Alberon the greater part of the Belgic 
portion of the kingdom of the Francs ; and his promises 
to make a powerful diversion in favour of Genseric king 
of the Vandals in Africa, and his own ambitious views, 
pointed to the south of France. His main force was 
therefore directed against Orleans ; from whence, if he 
had been successful, he would have undoubtedly con- 
tinued f his victorious course towards the Gothic me- 
tropolis, or Arelas the principal city of the Roman 
province. We know not to whom the military defence 
of Orleans was entrusted. Sangiban, king of the Alans, 
who occupied the neighbourhood of the Loire, was at 
that time in Orleans, but he does not appear to have 



* See Baudrand Lex. Geograph. 
t According to Callimachus, Attila sacked Tongres immediately after 
the battle of Chalons, before he went to Troyes. Nicolas Olaus contra- 
dicts his assertion, and says that he marched immediately against 
Troyes. According to Sabellicus, Rheims was attacked, and Nicasius 
butchered on the entrance of the Huns into Gaul, but it docs not 
appear that Attila was present. 



444 ATTILA, 

had the command # of the garrison. In the history of 
these times, whether relating to the Gallic war, or the 
invasion of Italy, we hear more of the bishop of the 
place, who seems generally to have taken upon himself 
the chief conduct of affairs, than of any military prsefect; 
partly, perhaps, because the details which have reached 
us have been chiefly transmitted f through ecclesiastics. 
To the bishop, therefore, has been generally attributed 
both the vigour that defended, and the treason that sur- 
rendered to the pagan, the fortresses of the Roman em- 
pire ; the traitors and the martyrs seem to have found a 
place equally in the calendar of saints. Anianus, since 
called St. Aignan, held the see of Orleans, when the 
immense force of Attila proceeded to invest it. He 
made every disposition for a stout % defence, encouraged 
the people and the garrison to put their confidence in 
God, without relaxing their efforts, and despatched a 
trusty messenger to Aetius, urging him to advance im- 
mediately to his relief. The operations of the Hun 
were § perhaps impeded for a few days by unseasonable 

* Jornandes, de ret). Get. c. 36. His expression is ubi tunc consiste- 
bat, which does not imply authority, though his presence in the town 
made it practicable for him to betray the place to Attila, with whom 
he was secretly negociating. 

t Prosper, Idatius, Sidonius, Jornandes, were all bishops. 

t Sidonius Apollinaris, writing to Prosper who succeeded Anianus in 
the see of Orleans, gives the whole praise of the preservation of the 
place to Anianus, and alludes to the fulfilment of his prophecy and 
prayers, ll ilia vulgata exauditi coelitus sacerdotis vaticinatio." 1. 8. 
ep. 15. 

§ The life of St. Aignan (ap. Chesnium Script. Franc, t. 1. p. 521.) 
informs us, that the bishop spat upon Attila from the walls, and that 
therewith it rained so violently for three days, that the operations of 
the besiegers were interrupted ; that Anianus was carried in the spirit 



AND HIS PREDECESSORS. 445 

weather, but his engines battered the town with irresis- 
tible force, and it seemed as if nothing but the direct 
interposition of Providence could save the town and its 
inhabitants from the terrible chastisement, which Attila 
never failed to inflict upon those who presumed to defend 
themselves. Bishop Anian prayed, and prayed, and 
prayed ; but the walls were shaken by the force of the 
battering rams, the garrison were driven from the battle- 
ments by the Hunnish archery, and the battlements 

(" more proplietarum") to the outposts of Aetius, and sent a sentinel 
with his message ; that he went in person to entreat the forbearance of 
Attila, and was rejected ; that on the following morning the gates were 
thrown open, and that the Huns were actually loading their waggons 
with goods, when the incessant prayers of Anianus, who still told the 
people not to despair, brought the allied army to their relief. We learn 
at least from this story, that, in his endeavours to obtain assistance, 
he had not entirely confined his exertions to prayer, and that, when he 
sent his attendant to look out from the wall, he had some reason to 
expect the. succour he was imploring. That the Huns did enter the 
city, is certain, though Gregory of Tours, who wrote at the close of the 
next century, and gives a most spirited account of the transaction, does 
not say so ; but it is equally certain that they were not admitted by 
capitulation ; for the words of Sidonius Apollinaris, who was twenty-two 
years old at the time, a native and afterwards bishop of Clermont at 
no great distance, " obsessio, oppugnatio, irruptio, nee direptio," how- 
ever brief, are quite decisive, that the town was besieged, stormed, 
broken into, but not plundered. We know from the whole tenor of 
Attila's conduct, that a town resisting and taken by storm would have 
been sacked without mercy ; therefore it is as certain, as if Sidonius 
had detailed the particulars, that the Huns had just made good their 
way into the town, when the approach of Aetius and Theodoric forced 
Attila to call back his troops from the assault. " The bishops of Orleans 
have the privilege of liberating a prisoner from the gaol on the day of 
their induction into the see, however great his crime ; a privilege first 
conferred upon St. Aignan for his exertions in defending that city 
against Attila the Hun." — Heyliris Hist, of St. Gconjc, p. 78. 



446 ATTILA, 

themselves crumbled under the repeated shocks of the 
blocks of stone that were hurled by the machines of the 
besiegers. He sent his attendant to look out and report 
whether he saw any thing in the distance. The answer 
was, no. Again he sent him, and nothing was distin- 
guishable. A third time, and he reported, like the 
messenger of Elijah, that a little cloud was rising on the 
plain. The bishop shouted to the people, that it was 
the aid of God, and throughout the whole town there 
was a cry of the aid of God, mingled with the shrieks of 
women ; for at that very instant the Huns were scaling 
the breach and actually in the town, and in a few 
moments the city would have been a blazing and bloody 
example of barbarian vengeance. But Attila had seen 
the little cloud that was advancing in the distance, and 
recognised the dust that was raised by the rapid advance 
of the Gothic cavalry, which formed the van of the army 
of Aetius. Instantly he saw the danger of exposing his 
troops to the attack of a powerful enemy under that con- 
summate general, amidst the disorganization which must 
accompany the sack of a populous city, which was on 
the point of being delivered up to plunder; and at the 
very instant when Orleans was taken, and the work of 
violation and massacre was on the point of commencing, 
the successful assailants were astonished by the signal 
for a retreat. The deliverance was attributed by the 
Christians to the direct interposition of Providence, ob- 
tained by the faith and supplications of their priest. 

§ 51. Attila did not think it expedient to await the 
attack of Aetius before the walls of a hostile town, and, 
having learned the strength of the allied army, he re- 
treated to the great plains of Champagne which took 



AND HIS PREDECESSORS. 447 

their name from * Catalannum, the modern Chalons 
upon Marne, and by that movement he probably fell 

* They are called by Jornandes the Catalaunian or Mauritian plains. 
De reb. Get. c. 36. Some writers have represented the movement of 
Attila to have been an advance to encounter Aetius and Theodoric, and 
some (especially Desericius, De initiis, &c.) have laboured to prove 
that the Catalaunian or Mauritian plains stretched towa:ds Cebennes, 
and lay near the modern Mauriac in Auvergne, which is but a hundred 
miles from Thoulouse, and lies between that town and Orleans. It was 
however most decidedly a retreat upon his line of operations, though not 
in a direction, which would have marked any intention of evacuating 
the country; and the suggestion that the subsequent battle was within a 
hundred miles of Thoulouse is absolute drivelling, when it is known that 
Torismond, after his father Theodoric had been killed in the battle, 
drew off his army to return to his own dominions lest in his absence his 
brothers might occupy the throne. If the battle had been fought in 
front of his capital, he would have no occasion to lead his army home, 
but must have continued to act with Aetius, and have fought for his 
crown on the spot where he stood. The testimony of Sidonius is however 
incontrovertible, because if the Huns stormed and entered Orleans, and 
yet were prevented from plundering it, the town must have been re- 
lieved at that very instant; but Mauriac in Auvergne is about 200 miles 
in advance of Orleans nearly in the direct line from thence to Thoulouse 
the capital of the Visigoths, and the plains which lay toward Cebennes 
were the very dependencies of Tolosa which are mentioned by Ausonius, 
juga propter Ninguida Pyrenes et pinea Cebennarum. If Attila had 
reached that quarter of France, Orleans must have been completely at 
his mercy, and he must have either already expelled Meroveus from his 
Parisian kingdom, and Sangiban from the seat of the Alans on the 
Loire, or have completely cut them off and separated them from the 
Goths and Romans ; yet we know that they were both with their forces 
present at the battle, and forming important parts of the army of 
Aetius. Ammianus Marcellinus (1. 27. c. 3.) gives an account of a great 
battle fought at an earlier period on the same extensive plain near 
Catalauni against the Germans of the neighbourhood of Metz. The 
Mercure de France for April 1753, contains an article to prove that the 
Campus Mauriacus was the plain of Merry sur Seine, five leagues from 
Troyes. tit. Velly Hist, de France, 1. p. 41. note duod. ed. The name 



448 v ATTILA, 

back upon his own resources and concentrated his forces, 
for it is not likely that the whole of his enormous army 
should have been in the lines before Orleans. He knew 
that he had to contend with a general of great skill, a 
king of approved valour, and an army equal to his own 
in numbers and warlike habits. Upon the plain of 
Chalons was then to be decided the fate of Europe ; the 
combatants there assembled had been drawn together 
from the immense tract of country which reaches from 
the straits of Gibraltar to the Caspian sea. It is impos- 
sible in our days to approach the consideration of this 
contest without bringing to mind that nearly fourteen 
centuries after this great event, the armies of the same 
immeasurable line of territory were to be again assembled 
on the same plain, and under circumstances very similar, 
for the overthrow of the only individual who has arisen 
since that day, resembling Attila in his character, in his 
success, in his mode of acting and his views of uni- 
versal dominion ; that both were defeated, and both 
came forth again to be the terror of Europe in one 
more final campaign. 

§ 52. On his retrograde march towards Chalons, a 
circumstance is said to have occurred, which, if it was 
not, as may be suspected, a politic contrivance of his 
own, was at least adroitly put forward by Attila, for 
the purpose of increasing the terror of his name; an 
object of peculiar importance at the moment of a 
retreat. A Christian hermit * was brought to him, 

is Mercy in some maps of France. The great map of Chaucharcl gives 
a Merry near the Marne, a few miles above Chalons, and the name 
Mauriacus applied to the plain of Chalons is probably connected with 
that of both those places. * Nicolas Olaus.-— Thurocz, &c. 



AND HIS PREDECESSORS. 449 

who had been urgent for admittance to his presence, 
and addressed him at length, assuring him that God, 
on account of the iniquities of his people, which he 
fully detailed, placed the sword in his hand, which, 
when they should have returned to a sound state, he 
would resume and give to another. He said to him 
" Thou art the scourge * of God, for the chastisement 
of the Christians," and added that he would be un- 
successful in the battle he was about to fight, but that 
the kingdom would not pass out of his hands. From 
this moment Attila appears to have assumed the title 
of Scourge of God, which accorded with his views of 
oversetting the Christian religion, and establishing his 
own right to universal dominion upon the grounds of 
-a heavenly delegation. He had long pretended to be 
the holder of that sword, which was regarded either as 
the God itself, or the symbol of the principal God 
which the Scythian nations worshipped. The title 
which he now assumed, appears to have furnished a 
pretext to insincere Christians, under the specious garb 
of humility and resignation to the chastisement of the 
Almighty, to betray into his hands the places which 
they should have defended; and, in an age so prone 
to superstition, it is not unlikely that it may have in- 
fluenced many devout Christians to yield to him without 
offering any resistance. Attila, having heard the pre- 
diction of the hermit, consulted his own soothsayers, 
of whom there was always a multitude with his army. 
According to their custom, they f inspected the fibres or 

* Perhaps more properly the flail of God. 
t Jornandes, c. 3G, and others. It is observable that the Christian 
bishop Jornandes evidently marks by bis expressions, that be looked 

2 Q 



450 ATTILA, 

entrails of cattle, and certain veins which were distinguished 
upon the bones after they had been scraped, and after 
due deliberation they announced to him an unfavourable 
issue of the battle, but consoled him by the assurance 
that the principal leader of his enemies would perish in 
the engagement. Attila is said to have understood that 
the prediction pointed to Aetius, whose loss would have 
been irreparable to the Romans. He therefore deter- 
mined to give battle to the allies at a late hour of the 
day, that he might reap the advantage awarded to him 
by the prophecy with as little loss as possible, and that 
the approach of night might screen his army from the 
reverse which he had reason to expect. He is said * to 
have proposed a truce which was refused by Aetius. 
It is not improbable that the predictions of his sooth- 
sayers may have caused him to hesitate, and he was per- 
haps desirous of a few more days to collect the forces 
which he might have left in Belgium. 

§ 53. In the night f preceding the great battle, an 
important collision took place between 90,000 of the 



upon the report of the soothsayers as an actual prophecy of the event ; 
and that the Roman General Littorius, who was probably a Christian, 
a few years before had consulted the soothsayers of the Huns, who were 
in his army, previous to the engagement which was fatal to him. 

* Nicolas Olaus. An absurd story that he wished to gain time to 
recall a third part of his army which he had sent into Spain against a 
certain Sultan named Miroman, is related by Olaus, Thurocz, and 
Michael Ritius, but it is wholly unworthy of credit. The greater part 
of Spain was under the sway of Theodoric, and it is quite impossible 
that any part of Attila's army should have crossed the Pyrenees. 
Backshay also (Chron. reg. Hung.) says that he penetrated Spain as far 
a,s Bsetica and Hispalis or Seville. 

t Jornandes de reb. Get. c. 36. 



AND HIS PREDECESSORS. 451 

Francs on the side of the Romans, and of the Gepidae 
who formed an important part of the Hunnish army, and 
many on both sides had fallen. Whatever hesitation 
Attila might have felt in the first instance, he acted 
with his usual decision when the hour arrived, which 
was to decide the fate of Western Enrope. The hostile 
armies lay close to each other on an extensive plain, 
which stretched 150,000 paces in length, and above 
100,000 in breadth. The forces of Attila were on the 
left, the Romans on the right of a sloping hill, which 
either army was desirous of occupying on account of the 
advantage of the position. A'etius commanded the left 
wing of the allies, with the troops that were in the ser- 
vice of the emperor. Theodoric with his Goths formed 
the right, and Sangiban with his Alans was placed in 
the centre, so surrounded as to prevent his withdrawing 
himself, since he was regarded with suspicion, and known 
to be fearful of incurring the vengeance of Attila, and 
he was probably supported by the Francs.* Attila with 
his Huns, surrounded by a body-guard of chosen troops, 
commanded in the centre of his army. His wings were 
composed of various subject nations, led by their several 
kings, amongst whom the Ostrogothic brothers Walamir, 
Theodemir, and Widimir, were conspicuous, distinguished 
not only by their valour, but by the nobility of their 
descent, being joint-heirs of the illustrious race of the 
Amali. But the most renowned amongst them was 
Arderic, who led into the field an innumerable force of 

* The position of the Francs under Meroveus is not stated by am 
writer, but it was probably in the centre, with his neighbours the Alans. 
Tbe old French chronicles attribute to him in a greal measure the 
success of the day, but without any particular statement. 

a g 2 



452 ATTILA, 

Gepidae, and commanded the right wing. Attila placed 
the greatest confidence in his fidelity, and relied much 
upon his advice. He shared the favour of the Hun with 
Walamir 5 who was the eldest and principal king of the 
Ostrogoths, and highly valued for his sagacity. Walamir 
commanded the left wing which was opposed to Theo- 
doric. But Attila was the soul of his army ; the num- 
berless kings, who served under his orders, attended like 
satellites to his nod, observed the least motion of his eye, 
and were ever prompt to execute his commands. The 
battle commenced with a struggle for the possession of 
the higher ground, which was as yet unoccupied. Attila 
directed his troops to advance to its summit, but Aetius 
had anticipated his movement, and, having gained pos- 
session of it, by the advantage of the ground easily routed 
the Huns who were advancing, and drove them down 
the hill. Attila quickly rallied the Huns, and encou- 
raged them by a harangue, in which he said that he 
should think it a vain thing to inspirit them by words, as 
if they were ignorant of their duty, and novices in war, 
after having vanquished so many nations, and actually 
subdued the world, if they did not suffer what they had 
won to be wrested from them. A new leader might 
resort to, and an inexperienced army might require, 
such exhortations ; but it neither became them to hear, 
nor him to address to them, words of trite and common 
encouragement ; for to what had they been habituated, 
if not to warfare ? what could be sweeter to brave men 
than vengeance, the greatest of the gifts of nature ? 
" Let us therefore," he said, " attack the enemy briskly. 
" The assailants are always the stoutest-hearted. Despise 
" the junction of separate nations ; to seek alliances 



AND HIS PREDECESSORS. 453 

" betrays weakness. See even now, before the attack, 
" the enemy are panic-stricken ; they seek the elevated 
" places, they take possession of the mounds, and, re- 
" penting of their hardihood, they are already desirous 
" of finding fortifications in the open plain. The light- 
" ness of the Roman arms is known to you ; I will not 
" say that they are overpowered by the first wounds, 
" but by the very dust. While they are assembling in 
" line and locking their shields, do you fight after your 
" own manner with excellent spirit, and despising their 
" array, attack the Alans, overwhelm the Visigoths. 
" We must win the repose of victory by destroying the 
" sinews of war ; the limbs drop, when the nerves are 
" cut through, and a body cannot stand when the bones 
" are taken from it. Huns, let your spirits rise ; put 
" forth all your skill and all your prowess. Let him, 
" who is wounded, demand of his comrade the death of 
" his antagonist; let him, who is untouched, satiate 
" himself with the slaughter of enemies. No weapons 
" will harm those who are doomed to conquer ; those 
" who are to die would be overtaken even in repose by 
" their destiny. Why should fortune have made the 
" Huns victorious over so many nations, unless the 
" glory of this contest had been reserved for them ? 
" Who opened the passage of the Maeotian swamp to 
" our ancestors, so many centuries shut up and secret ? 
" Who enabled them, when as yet unarmed, to defeat 
" their armed adversaries ? An allied assemblage will 
" not be able to resist the countenance of the Huns. I 
" am not deceived ; this is the field which so many suc- 
" cesses have promised to us. I myself will throw the 
" first darts at the enemy, and if any one of you can 



454 ATTILA, 

" endure repose while Attila is fighting, he wants the 
" energy of life." By such exhortations the wonted 
spirit of his soldiers was renewed, and well may it be 
seen, by the tenor of his language, how absolute was his 
controul over the various kings, of whose subjects his 
army was composed, when he could thus publicly contrast 
the unity of his own force, with the weakness of an allied 
confederacy. They rushed impetuously onward, and, 
though the posture of affairs under the disadvantage of 
ground was formidable, the presence of Attila prevented 
any hesitation; they engaged hand to hand with the 
enemy. The contest was fierce, complicated, immense, 
and obstinate, to which, according to the assertion of 
Jornandes, the records of antiquity presented nothing 
similar. That historian, who wrote about a century 
after, says that he heard from old men, that a rivulet 
which traversed the plain was swollen by blood into the 
appearance of a torrent, and that those, who were tor- 
mented by thirst and the fever of their wounds, drank 
blood from its channel for their refreshment. In the 
heat of the battle Theodoric riding along the ranks and 
animating his Visigoths, was knocked off his horse, as it 
was reported, by the dart of Andages an Ostrogoth in 
the army of Attila. In the confusion his own cavalry 
charged over him, and he was trampled to death. It 
appears that the Ostrogoths, who formed the left wing 
of the Huns,* were overpowered by this charge and gave 

* Nicolas Olaus says that Walamir commanded the right wing, and 
Arderic the left of the Huns; Aetius the left and Theodoric the right 
of the allies, but he is evidently wrong, for the Visigoths and Ostrogoths 
were opposed to each other, and the dart of an Ostrogoth was fatal to 
Theodoric. To Arderic certainly belongs the renown of having routed 



AND HIS PREDECESSORS. 455 

way, and that the Visigoths advancing beyond the Alans, 
who were opposed to Attila in the centre, had turned 
the position of the Huns, and threatened their flank and 
rear; but, seeing the danger with which he was menaced, 
Attila immediately fell back upon his camp, which was 
fenced round by his baggage waggons, behind which 
the Hunnish archers presented an insurmountable ob- 
stacle to the impetuosity of the Gothic cavalry. But 
the whole army did not retire behind the defences, and 
the Huns stood firm until it was dark ; for Torismond, 
the eldest son of Theodoric, who was not by his father's 
side in the battle, but had been stationed by the wary 
Aetius near his own person, probably as a surety for 
the fidelity of Theodoric, and had at the first driven the 
Huns down the hill in concert with the Romans, being 
separated from them afterwards, and mistaking in the 
darkness the Hunnish troops for the main body of the 
Visigoths, came unawares near the waggons, and fighting 
valiantly was wounded on the head and knocked off his 
horse, and being rescued by his soldiers discontinued 
the attack. The superstition of the combatants in- 
creased the horrors of a nocturnal conflict, and a super- 
natural voice * was supposed to have been heard by 
either army, which terminated the conflict. While this 
advantage had been gained at night-fall by the right 
wing of the allies, which had broken the left and forced 
the centre of Attila's army to fall back, the left wing 

Aetius. The account of Jornandes is confused, and his expressions 
seem to imply that hoth Arderic and Walamir were opposed to Theodo- 
ric, but his meaning must have been that there were Visigoths in both 
wings of the Roman army, Torismond not being with his father, but 
with Aetius. * Sabellicus Enn. 



45& ATTTLA, 

under Aetius had been roughly handled by Arderic, and 
separated from the main body of his forces. Aetius, igno- 
rant of the success of his right and cut off from all com- 
munication with the rest of his army, was in the greatest 
peril, and fearful that the Visigoths had been overpowered. 
With difficulty he retreated to his camp, and passed the 
night under arms, expecting his entrenchments to be at- 
tacked by a victorious enemy. A most qualified victory 
it was, but certainly a victory, for the Visigoths did 
carry the battle to the very camp of Attila, whose right 
wing, though successful, did not pursue Aetius to his ; 
but the singular result of this engagement was, that each 
of the chief commanders passed the night under mo- 
mentary expectation of an assault from his antagonist. 
Attila, with the desperate resolution of a pagan, made a 
vast pyre within the limits of his encampment, which 
was piled up with harness, and such of the accoutre- 
ments of his cavalry, as were not in immediate use, on 
which he had determined to burn himself with his women 
and riches, in case his defences should be stormed, that 
he might not fall alive into the hands of his enemies, nor 
any one of them boast of having slain him ; but he pre- 
sented a determined front to the allies, and placed a 
strong force of armed men and archers in front # of the 
cars, keeping up at the same time an incessant din of 
warlike instruments to animate his own troops, and 
alarm those of Aetius by the expectation of an attack. 

§ 54. The dawn discovered to both armies a plain 
absolutely loaded with the bodies of the slain, and Aetius, 
perceiving that Attila stood on the defensive, and shewed 

* Blondus Hist. dec. 1.1. 2. 



AND HIS PREDECESSORS. 457 

no intention of advancing, became sensible of the successes 
of the former evening ; and, after he had communicated 
with the Visigoths, it was determined to attempt to reduce 
Attila by a blockade, as the army of Stilicho had reduced 
the great host of Radagais near Florence ; for the fire of 
the Hunnish archers was so hot, that they dared not 
attack him in his position. But the victorious Theo- 
doric was missing, and no one amongst his troops could 
account for his disappearance. Torismond and his 
brother instituted a search for his body, and it was dis- 
covered amongst the thickest heaps of the slain. It was 
borne in sight of the Huns with funereal songs to the 
camp of the Visigoths, where his obsequies were celebrated 
with pompous ceremony and loud vociferations, which 
seemed discordant to the ears of the polished Romans ; 
and Torismond was raised to the estate of a king upon 
the shield of his forefathers. Having offered to his 
departed father all the honours, which the customs of 
his countrymen required, he was ardently desirous of 
revenging himself on Attila, and would gladly have 
bearded the lion in his den, but he was not so rash as to 
attempt an attack with his Visigoths alone ; and it was 
necessary to consult with Aetius. That crafty politician, 
who appears at every moment of his life to have played 
a double game, did not consider it for his own advantage 
to renew the attack. The Huns had sustained such a 
severe loss of men, that it was not probable that Attila 
would then renew his attempt either to penetrate into 
the Roman province, or to conquer the kingdom of the 
Visigoths. On the other hand, if he should succeed in 
utterly overpowerng the Hun, he dreaded to find a 
second Alaric in his grandson, who might prove not less 



458 ATTILA, 

formidable to the empire. His own views were fixed 
upon the imperial purple, and the report, that he entered 
into secret negociations with Attila, after the battle of 
Chalons, with a view to his own advancement, is probably 
correct. Being consulted by his young ally, he advised 
him to forbear from renewing the attack, and to retire 
with his forces to his own dominions, lest his younger 
brothers should take advantage of his absence to possess 
themselves of his throne. With like craftiness, he per- 
suaded Meroveus rather to content himself with what 
remained to him of the kingdom of Clodion, than to 
risk the consequence of another engagement, in the 
hope of recovering the Belgian territory. The loss of 
human life in the battle is estimated at about * 160,000 
souls, and whether we look to the numbers and prowess 
of the combatants, the immensity of the carnage, or its 
consequences to the whole of Europe, it was undoubtedly 
one of the most important battles that were ever fought. 
When the retreat of the Visigoths was first announced 
to Attila, he imagined that it was a crafty device of the 
enemy to lure him into some rash undertaking, and he 
remained for some time close in his camp; but when 
the utter and continued silence of their late position 
convinced him that they had really withdrawn, his mind 
was greatly elevated, and all his hopes of obtaining 
universal dominion were instantly renewed. He was 



* Jornandes says 162,000, besides the Francs and Gepidse, who had 
fallen on the preceding night; the number then killed is stated by H. 
Palladius to have been 15,000, p. 24. Idatius says 300,000 fell ; Cala- 
nus 160,000 on each side; Nicolas Olaus 180,000 on each side; but 
those writers probably doubled the original report by applying the 
whole reputed slaughter to each party. 



AND HIS PREDECESSORS. 459 

very boastful in his language, and is said to have cried 
out, # as soon as the departure of Torismond was con- 
firmed, " A star is falling before me and the earth trem- 
bling. Lo, I am the hammer of the world!" In that 
singular expression will be recognized an allusion to the 
hammer of the God Thor, of which the form is known 
to have been a cross, and in fact nearly identical with 
that of the mysterious sword which Attila wore, revers- 
ing it so that the hilt becomes the mallet and the blade 
the handle. He met with no further opposition from 
any part of the allied army, from which it may be pretty 
surely concluded that f A'etius did enter into a secret 
arrangement with him, which, though suspected, never 
became public, as A'etius did not communicate it to 
the Romans. If we may judge from the result, the 
terms must have been that Attila should not attack the 
Roman province or kingdom of Tolosa, but should 
retain his Belgian conquests which were raised into 
the kingdom of Cameracum for Alberon, and should not 
be molested by the allies ; to which we may suppose 
that A'etius added private terms to promote his own 
elevation. It is probable that when, after the decease 
of Attila, Valentinian caused Aetius to be put to death, 



* Nicolas Olaus. Little attention has been paid to these words by 
those who had not considered how much of his importance Attila derived 
from the superstitious awe with which he was regarded. Such expres- 
sions are much more likely to have been really used by him, than in- 
vented subsequently by an historian who did not understand the 
allusion. 

+ H. Palladius says that Aetius did not follow up the advantage he 
had gained, either because he dreaded the ascendancy of the Goths, or 
because a protraction of the war suited his own schemes. 



460 ATTILA, 

he was apprized of his treasonable plans, which were 
perhaps on the eve of being carried into execution. 

§ 55. In order to remove the impression of a defeat, 
Attila, having surveyed the field of battle, of which he 
was ultimately left the master by the retreat of those who 
had defeated him in a qualified manner, ordered a great 
sacrifice * to be made according to the practice of his 
nation, to the God Mars, that is to the sword which he 
wore, and which was the visible personification of the 
war-god. The fashion of that sacrifice was after this 
f manner. They raised a lofty square structure of fag- 
gots, measuring 375 paces on each of its sides, three of 
which were perpendicular, but the fourth graduated, so 
that it was easily ascended. In their regular stations such 
structures were renovated every year by an accumulation 
of 150 waggon loads of brush-wood. On the summit 
the ancient iron sword, which was symbolical of the war- 
god, was planted. To that idol sheep and horses were 
sacrificed. The sacrificator first made fast a rope round 
the feet of the animal, and, standing behind it, by pulling 
the rope threw it dow T n, and thereupon invoking the 
God, he cast a halter round its neck, and strangled # it 



* Nicolas Olaus, Callimaehus, &c. 
t Herodotus. 
t The prohibition to the Gentiles, (Acts xv. 20.) " that they abstain 
from pollutions of idols, and from fornication, and from things strangled, 
and from blood," evidently refers to this idolatrous mode of sacrifice, as 
the abstinence from fornication, by the manner in which it is introduced, 
has a peculiar reference to the devotional acts of unchastity practised 
by the Babylonians and even the Athenians. This mode of sacrifice 
was in direct contravention of the injunction in Genesis, ix. 4. "Flesh 
with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat ;" and 
the Scythian mode of idolatry, which was extensive and of the highest 



AND HIS PREDECESSORS. 461 

by twisting the rope with a stick ; and without either 
burning, or cutting, or sprinkling it, he immediately 
proceeded to skin and cook it. In ancient times, when 
their state was very rude, and they dwelt in extensive 
plains where fuel was very rare, they used the bones of 
the animals for fuel, as the South Americans do at this 
day, and even the paunch of the animal for a kettle. 
As soon as the beast was cooked, the sacrificator taking 
the first share of the flesh and entrails, threw the rest 
before him. Of their captives they sacrificed one chosen 
out of each hundred, not in the same manner as the 
beasts, but having first poured wine on his head, they 
cut his throat, and received the blood in a vessel, which 
they afterwards carried up to the summit of the pile, 
and they emptied the blood upon the sword. They cut 
off the right shoulder of each man that was thus 
slaughtered, together with the arm and hand, and cast 
it into the air ; and after the completion of their cere- 
monies they departed, leaving the limb to lie wherever 
it happened to have fallen, and the body apart from it. 
Such was the mode in which the ancient Scythians had 
sacrificed nine hundred years before ; such were the rites 
bv which the Huns had celebrated their first successes 
in Europe, and by which Attila now returned thanks- 
giving on the plain of Chalons for the retreat of the 

antiquity, was perhaps partly the reason of the prohibition, as well as 
the mysterious importance of the blood. In the Jewish sacrifices the 
blood of beasts prefigured a more perfect atonement ; in that of the 
Scythians the blood of captives was deemed a perfect atonement, and 
that of beasts not available ; but the entire beast was sacrificed and 
eaten. I believe that almost every prohibition in the Old Testament, 
superadded to the commandments, was directed against some existing 
malpractice of the idolators. 



462 ATTILA, 

Christians. Such was the man, before whom the Chris- 
tians trembled, and with whom the Arians and some 
other sectarians are said to have been plotting for the 
destruction of the Catholics. Ammianus Marcellinus 
had already testified, that in his time no wild beasts 
were so blood-thirsty as the various denominations of 
Christians against each other. Probably more with a 
view to wipe out the impression of his retreat, and of the 
check which he had received, than of prosecuting the 
invasion, he now moved forward again with his whole 
force, not in the direct line to Orleans, but in a direction 
which appeared to threaten Orleans, and he advanced 
against Troyes # on the 29th of July. Lupus the bishop 
of that place, and soon after sanctified, delivered up the 
town to Attila, and prevailed upon him to spare the 
place and its inhabitants. He is said to have gone out 
bareheaded, attended by his clergy and many of the 
citizens to meet Attila, and to have asked him, who he 
was that subdued kings, overturned nations, destroyed 
towns, and reduced every thing under his subjection. 
Attila replied, "I am the king of the Huns and the 
scourge of God." To which Lupus answered saying, 
" Who shall resist the scourge of God, which may rage 
against whomsoever he willeth ! Come therefore, scourge 
of my God, proceed whithersoever thou wilt ; all things 
shall obey thee, as the minister of the Almighty, without 
impediment from me." Attila marched through the town 
without injuring it, and the Christian legends say that 
the Huns were smitten with blindness, so that they 
passed on without seeing any thing, a miracle attributed 

* Cod. Valeellensis apud Hagiographos. 



AND HIS PREDECESSORS. 463 

to the sanctity of Lupus. That prelate received, as 
the minister of his God, the barbarian whose sword was 
reeking with the recent immolation of his Christian cap- 
tives, and he proceeded with Attila to the Rhine, and 
is said to have been therefore excluded for some time 
from his diocese. His panegyrists assert that Attila for 
the good of his own soul compelled Lupus to accompany 
him. He may have thought such a tool useful, by in- 
ducing others to submit, and the bishop have found him- 
self, after the part he had acted, safest under his 
protection ; not having anticipated, when he received 
the Hun with such honours, that he would immediately 
afterwards retire from France. He is eulogized by 
Sidonius Apollinaris, soon after bishop of Clermont, 
whose praise is perhaps not very valuable, and whose 
writings, very different from those of Prudentius,* bear 
the stamp rather of paganism than of genuine Christianity. 
Attila thence changed the direction of his march and 
returned to Pannonia. He certainly, however, left an 
organized force behind to defend the Belgian kingdom 
of Cameracum against Merov'eus, for Alberon and his 
two brothers continued in possession of it, till they 
were defeated by the army of Clovis (Louis), and sub- 
sequently massacred by him. Having passed through 
Troyes, Attila,f seeing the people flying to the woods, 
had compassion on them, and ordered them to return 
home without fear. A woman with one little girl tied 
round her neck, two others on a pack-horse, and seven 



* Pruclentius, governor at Saragosa, was probably not born there, as 
stated p. 84, but at Calagurris, (Calahorra) which he calls nostra. Per. 
18.31. t Callimachus. Nicolas Olaus. 



464 ATTILA, 

elder daughters accompanying her on foot, cast herself 
at his feet and supplicated his protection. It was the 
policy of Attila to treat with general clemency those 
who threw themselves on his mercy, while he extir- 
minated those who defied him, and he was naturally 
good-natured, when his ambitious views were not 
thwarted. He raised up the suppliant lady benignly, 
and dismissed her with assurances of his favour, and 
ample gifts to enable her to educate and give marriage 
portions to her daughters. 

§ 56. The Huns who were left to defend and com- 
plete the reduction of * Belgium are said to have been 
commanded by Giulas, who commenced his career by 
the sack of Rheims, of which the inhabitants had given 
great offence by harassing the Hunnish army before the 
battle of Chalons. The f citizens in extreme distress 
crowded round their bishop Nicasius, imploring his ad- 
vice in the fatal alternative of hopeless resistance, or 
surrender to the certain vengeance of the barbarians. 
Nicasius admonished them that the success of Attila 
was permitted on account of their sins; but that they 
were destined to brief torments in the hands of the tyrant 
to obtain salvation and heavenly life. He exhorted 
them to follow and imitate his example. His sister Eu- 
tropia, a pious virgin of exceeding beauty, seconded his 



* It may be observed that Champagne was not considered a part of 
Gaul, for, according to Jornandes, Aetius advised Torismond to return 
from Chalons into Gaul. The name Giulas deserves no credit. 

t Nicolas Olaus. Hagiographi. Nicolas Olaus makes Attila move back 
upon Rheims after having passed through Troyes in a contrary direction, 
which is very improbable. Most likely the attack of these two unre- 
sisting towns was simultaneous. 



AND HIS PREDECESSORS. 465 

exhortations ; and many of the citizens animated by 
their enthusiastic piety accompanied them to the church 
of the Virgin Mary, singing hymns and psalms, in the 
midst of which Nicasius was butchered by the Huns. 
The beauty of Eutropia excited the desires of the con- 
queror who had slain her brother, but she is said to have 
torn out both his eyes, and was slain with all the Chris- 
tians who had taken refuge in the church. Rheims 
was demolished, but Attila was not present. Diogenes* 
bishop of Arras was also killed by the Huns and the 
town destroyed. Tongres f underwent the same fate, 
notwithstanding the sanctity and prayers of St. Servatius. 
Maestrich suffered either before or after the battle of 
Chalons. After the destruction of Tongres, the Huns 
are said to have undertaken the siege of Cologne, which 
has been rendered famous by the alleged martyrdom of 
St. Ursula and 11,010 virgins, an absurd fable, which it 
will be however proper to notice, as the lady has obtained 
a place in the calendar. If the eyes of the Hunnish 
general had been extinguished, he could scarcely have 
commanded in the subsequent operations; supposing them 
to have been lacerated by Eutropia, it is not improbable 
that he may have acted very ferociously and butchered 
many young women at Cologne, but the story of Ursula 
is utterly absurd, and the name Giulas seems like a cor- 
ruption of Julius borrowed from an older tale, and was 
probably not the real name of a Hunnish commander. 
Sigebertus, who flourished at the end of the eleventh 
century, is probably the first writer extant who detailed 

* Molanus in eulog. S. Vedasti. 
t Some writers have thought that Rheims and Tongres had been 
.sacked before the battle of Chalons. 

2 H 



466 ATTILA, 

the story as relating to Ursula. The tale is given with 
some variation by different authors. The account of 
Nicolas Olaus is as follows : — Ursula was the only 
daughter of the king of Britannia ; she was courted by 
iEthereus son of the king of the Angli, who requested 
her father to betroth her to him, on condition that she 
should be permitted to travel for three years according 
to her vow, requiring from JEthereus ten virgins of un- 
doubted chastity for her companions, to each of whom as 
well as to herself a thousand maidens should be attached. 
The 11,011 virgins entered the mouth of the Rhine on 
board eleven large ships, and proceeded to Cologne and 
Basle, whence they joumied on foot to Rome, and, having 
visited all the shrines in that quarter, according to her 
vow, they returned with Cyriac pope of Rome to Basle 
and Cologne, where the whole party were intercepted 
and massacred by the Huns under Giulas. Gobelin 
Persona (born A.D. 1358), in Cosmodrom. aetat. vi. c. 14. 
fully exposes the absurdity of the story, and shews that 
there never was such a pope or bishop of Rome, and 
that such visitations to Rome were unknown at that 
period. He says the tale was derived from a recluse of 
Shonaugia about the year 1156 (fcemina quadam, nescio 
an inclusa, an monacha, quae erat apud Shonaugiam 
circa A.D. 1156) ; and Pray, trusting to G. Persona, 
says that Elizabetha Shonaugiensis, in her revelations in 
the 12th century, first added its present form to the 
story of the virgins, which is untrue, for she did not even 
place the event in the age of Attila. It is certain that 
Ursula's name was in the calendar of saints before the 
time of Elizabeth, and that she did not invent the tale, 
because she mentions having seen what she relates in a 



AND HIS PREDECESSORS. 467 

vision on the day of the feast of the 1 1,000 holy virgins. 
Cardinal Desericius found at Rome an old and imperfect 
MS. which refers the event to the year 237, saying that 
Alexander Severus sent Maximin the Thracian from 
Illyria to repress the Germans near the Rhine. The 
former being killed, Maximin proclaimed himself em- 
peror. He employed Julius prsefect of the Rhine to 
besiege Cologne, and, through hatred to the Romans, 
caused the virgins returning from Rome to be massacred 
by Julius. It states another account to be that when 
Maximin moved to the siege of Aquileia, where he 
perished, Julius collected a band of Suni (a people of 
Germany mentioned by Pliny, Tacitus, and Cluverius), 
and slew the virgins, and that Suni was afterwards con- 
founded with Hunni, who were called according to the 
Latin orthography Chuni. The MS. quotes Lampridius 
and Julius Capitolinus falsely. Another account in 
Baronius (Ann. eccles.) refers the tale to the year 381. 
He says that Gratian having conciliated the Huns, 
wished that part of them should attack Great Britain 
with a fleet, and part enter Gaul in concert with the 
Alans ; that Conan, a petty king in Great Britain, ac- 
companied Maximus from thence to Gaul, and persuaded 
him to locate the British troops in the territory evacuated 
by the Armoricans, and to send over to Dinoc king of 
Cornwall for Ursula who was betrothed to Conan, and 
11,000 virgins for wives to the soldiers who were to form 
the new colony ; that Gaunus a Hunnish, and Melga a 
Pictish, pirate intercepted them, and, as they preferred 
death to the loss of virginity, slew them all. Baronius 
probably derived the account from Geoffry of Mon- 
mouth, and it originated in the Brut or Chronicle of the 

•-> II 2 



468 ATTILA, 

kings of Britain, which says that Maxim us and Cynan 
having killed Hymblat king of the Gauls, Maximus 
gave Armorica to Cynan, who sent to the earl of Corn- 
wall for 1 1 ,000 daughters of noble Britons, 60 daughters 
of foreigners, and servant maids. Their ships were dis- 
persed and some sank. Two were seized by Gwnass 
and Melwas, the former commander of the Huns, the 
latter of the Picts, who were at sea with crews in support 
of Gratian. Another manuscript of the Brut says that 
Cynan was enamoured of the daughter of Dunawd king 
of Cornwall, and sent for her with a large number of 
British women. See Roberts, Chron. of the kings of 
Brit. p. 101. where um-vil-ar-deg is erroneously trans- 
lated 1100 instead of 11,000. See Walters diet. voc. 
hundred. There appears no reason to doubt the veracity 
of this narrative, which accounts for the subsequent 
connexion between Britany and Cornwall; and it ap- 
pears by a letter of St. Ambrose # to Maximus that the 
Huns were employed at that time by the Roman em- 
peror; and from another it is evident that the Huns had 
been desired to enter Gaul, but were diverted by Valen- 
tinian. Sigebertus in his chronicle says that in 389 
Gnamus and Melga were leaders of the Huns and 
Britons employed by Gratian against Maximus, and laid 
waste Great Britain, but were driven into Ireland by a 
detachment sent by Maximus. The Huns as a nation 



* In medio Romani imperii sinu Juthungi populabantur Rhcetias, et 
ideo adversus Juthungos Hunnus aceitus est. Tom. 2. Class. I. Epist. 28. 
Vide autem quid intersit inter tuas molitiones et Valentiniani Au^usti 
pueri mansuetudinem. Tu flagitabas quod barbarorum stipatus ag- 
minibus Italia? te infunderes ; Valentinianus Hunnus atque Alanos ap- 
propiquantes Gallise per Alemamiiae terras deflexit. Epist. 27. 



AND HIS PREDECESSORS. 469 

had certainly no navy or maritime habits, but it is not 
improbable that, when they overran the North, some 
of them may have adventured as sea-rovers after the 
example of the Northmen. Vegnier, Vertot, Dubos, 
Turner, &c. deny the migration of Britons into Armorica 
in the time of Maximin, and maintain that the first 
Briton who settled there was one Rhivallon who fled 
from the encroachments of the Saxons in 513. The 
Loire is the southern boundary of Britany, and the 
words of Sidonius Apollinaris who wrote in the 5th 
century, and says that Euric king of Thoulouse was ad- 
vised to invade and conquer the Britons situated above 
the Loire, is decisive as to the error of their assertion. 
Sid. Apoll. 1 Epist. 7. Their king appears to have 
been Riothamus, to whom a letter addressed by Sidonius 
is extant, (Epist. 9. lib. 3.) and he is mentioned by 
Jornandes c. 45, as Riothimus king of the Britons 
amongst the Bituriges in France. The upshot of the 
whole appears to be that when Maximus founded a 
British colony in Britany in the 4th century, some of 
the wives or intended brides of the colonists were in- 
tercepted by a Hunnish and Pictish pirate in the service 
of Gratian ; that in the following century the general of 
Attila, having had his eyes lacerated by Eutropia, per- 
haps butchered some women at Cologne, called Colonia 
Ubiorum ; that Ursula the bride of the prince of the 
British colony, having been killed by the pirates, had 
been sanctified as a martyr; and that in the 11th or 12th 
centuries the stories were confounded, * the women who 



* A passage in the Philopatris attributed to Lucian, Olia ydp fivpiag 
apOevoi'Q SiafltXtiffTi TfjtjBeicraf; N //ov.j h> ufKpipvry, K/<//r>/r 8i ri fuv 



470 ATTILA, 

were slain having in both instances belonged to a colony, 
(Colonia) and suffered for resisting the incontinency of 

KaXsovGi, has been supposed by the author of Nimrod (v. 3. p. 446.) to 
allude to this fable, and to be a proof of the modern date of that tract, 
which for several reasons he attributes to the 12th century. It is not 
my province to give any opinion concerning the date of that vile tract, 
or its reference to this story ; but the date which I have been able to 
assign to the tale, viz. subsequent to the 9th, and anterior to the end of 
the 12th century, tends to support his opinion. A most absurd sug- 
gestion made by Callesius (Annal. eccl. Germ. t. 1. 1. v. num. 106-7.) 
that all the virgins of the neighbouring countries had flocked into 
Cologne, in order to save themselves from violation, is foolishly praised 
by Pray as being most probable ; but his nationality breaks out on the 
other hand in a most ludicrous manner against a quotation which Cal- 
lesius had made from Salvianus to prove the incontinence of the Hun- 
nish nation : and, because Salvianus wrote at Marseilles, and died about 
six, or perhaps ten, years before Attila entered Gaul, he asks how he 
could know in what manner the Huns behaved, with whom he could 
only have been acquainted, when they ravaged Burgundy, or when 
they served under Littorius near Narbonne. Those opportunities seem 
to have furnished sufficient insight into their mode of conducting them- 
selves; nor could any thing be more decisive than the testimony of Sal- 
vianus, that the Huns were more incontinent in their warfare than the 
other barbarians, because it is mentioned by him incidentally as a 
notorious fact, not in dispraise of them, but in censuring his own flock. 
Ut de paganisprius dicam, gens Saxonum fera est, Francorum infidelis, 
Gepidarum inhumana^ Chunorum impudica, omnium denique barba- 
rorum vita vitiositas. Sed nunquid eundem reatum habent eorum vitia, 
quam nostra ? Nunquid tarn criminosa est Chunorum impudicitia, 
quam nostra ? Salv. de gub. Dei. 1. 4. Salvianus is supposed to have 
died about 440. He mentions the irruption of the Vandals, the pillage 
by the Visigoths, and the revolt of the Bagaudse, but not the invasion of 
Attila, having probably died before it took place. The absurdity of 
Callesius arises from his supposing it necessary to account for such an 
immense number of virgins being in Cologne ; whereas it is probable 
that only a small number of young women, if any, were really killed 
there. When the two stories came to be confounded, or at least the 
monks of Cologne, the colony on the Rhine, imagined that St. Ursula, 



AND HIS PREDECESSORS. 471 

the Huns. That such is the real history of this fable 
appears further from this,. that Florus, Ado, and Wandel- 
bert, writers of the 8th and 9th centuries on martyrology, 
state the murder of the virgins at Cologne, but nothing 
about Great Britain, Ursula, iEthereus, or any names 
of virgins or any thing concerning a pilgrimage to Rome. 
That Cologne (Agrippina Colonia Ubiorum) was de- 
stroyed by the Huns is affirmed by Sigonius, Herm. 
Fleinius in vit. SS. ad 21 Oct. and Haraeus ap. Vales, 
and others besides the Hungarian writers. 

who had been killed with her attendants going to the colony in Britany, 
had been slain in their town, the natural question must have been, Alas ! 
poor gentlewoman, how gat she there? to which the monks of the 11th 
or 12th century would have as naturally replied, that she was undoubt- 
edly going on a pilgrimage to Rome. The tale was subsequently em- 
bellished, and her betrothed dignified with the title of iEthereus, and 
names (Cordula, Pinosa, Eleutheria, Florentia) given to the virgins. 
See Richard of Premontre. Weddercamp Hist. sec. prim. &c. Helmst. 
1700. p. 30. The number of the virgins has reference to the intended 
wives of the British colonists, but it appears that only a small part of 
them were really taken by the Huns. Th*3 visions of the Abbess 
Elizabeth of Schonaug were published in 1150. She states the virgins 
to have been killed by Julius the Hun at the instigation of the emperor 
Maximus and of Africanus, as set forth in the MS. cited by Desericius. 
The bishop, afterwards called pope Cyriac, is by her called St. Pantalus. 
As soon as the slaughter of the women of the colony of Maximus had 
been identified with that of the virgins at Cologne, the connexion of 
the event with Maximus was no longer apparent, and the history was 
transferred to Maximin, from the ferocity of his character and the 
similarity of the name, with the gross absurdity of making a Hun be a 
prsefect near the Rhine 136 years before there was a Hun in Europe. 
Spenser alludes to the expedition of Gaunus and Melga in the lines, 
Then gan the Hunnes and Picts invade this land 
During the reign of Maximinian. — Fa. Qu. c. 10. b. 2. st. 61. 
and to the colony of Maximus in the next stanza 

The weary Britons, whose war-able youth 
Was by Maximiun lately led away. 






472 ATTILA, 

§ 57. From Troyes Attila probably # returned di- 
rectly to Pannonia, through either f Strasbourg or Basle, 
continuing his course along the Danube. He passed 
the ensuing winter at his capital J Sicambria, which was 
perhaps the ancient Buda. It is fabulously stated to 
have been founded by Antenor the Trojan. When 
Attila either built or enlarged Sicambria, he is said to 
have wished to bestow his own name upon it, and the 
fatal quarrel between him and his brother is stated to 
have arisen from a dispute whether it should be called 
Attila or § Budawar. Bleda is by some writers named 
Buda, and in Scandinavian sagas Buddla is given as the 
name of the father of Attila, and perhaps it may be 
considered as having some reference to the name Buddha, 
the oriental title of Woden or Odin, who seems to have 
been on some occasions identified with Attila himself 
in ancient Scandinavian legends. The winter was em- 

* Thurocz, N. Olaus, and other Hungarian writers, make Attila return 
through Flanders, ravaging it, by a northerly route to Thuringia, and 
hold a great diet there, and Spend several years there in debauchery 
and excesses, after having sent out various expeditions to reduce the 
several nations in the North of Europe. The testimony of the early 
writers is quite decisive that his invasion of Italy took place the next 
year after the battle of Chalons, and his known temperance contradicts 
the story of his excesses, if they allude to those of the table. They 
should have placed his sojourn in Thuringia, before the invasion of 
Gaul. 

t The image of a man, said to represent Attila, was still standing on 
the Cronenburg gate of Strasburg in the middle of the last century. 
Schceffl. Alsatia. See above, p. 439. 

X Ascertained by an old inscription preserved by Lazing, to have been 
called Sicambria by the Romans, from having been built by a Sicam- 
brian auxiliary legion in Pannonia, which was stationed there. See 
Sicambria, Alt Offen, id est Vetus Buda. Baudrand Lex. Geogr. 
§ Thwrocz Chron. Hung. p. 70. 



AND HIS PREDECESSORS. 473 

ployed in recruiting his forces, and at the opening of 
the spring of 453, Attila had under his command a more 
powerful * army, than that with which he had entered 
Gaul. Early in the season he set this mighty host in 
motion for the overthrow of Rome. As he mounted on 
his horse to take the command of this momentous expe- 
dition, a crow *(• is said to have perched on his right 
shoulder, and immediately afterwards to have risen so 
high into the air, that it could no longer be discerned. 
The augury was accepted with joy, and the soldiers anti- 
cipated nothing less than the subjugation and plunder 
of Italy. It will be remembered that the God Odin is 
fabled to have had two crows or ravens which flew every 
day round the world to do his missions, and returned at 
evening to his heavenly mansion ; nor were these mes- 
sengers unknown to the Greek and Roman mythology. 
Plutarch relates that two crows were sent out by Jupiter, 
one to the east, the other to the west, and, having 
flown round the world, met at Delphi. Livy writes 
that when Valerius, hence called Corvinus, was engaged 
in contest with a powerful Gaul, a crow lighted on his 
helmet, and gave him the victory by assailing the eyes 
of his antagonist ; and we know J from Prudentius that 
this was one of the Delphic crows, sacred to Apollo. 

* Diaconus Gest. Rom. lib. 15. — The Cceletes, Morini, Tungri, Phrisi, 
Cimbri, and Prathenii were enumerated by N. Olaus, as lately added 
to his forces. In the life of St. John of Ravenna, (Acta S. S. torn. 1.) 
Attila is said to have held a meeting at Curta, now called Buda, (apud 
Curtam quam hodie Budam vocant) and to have animated his vassal 
kings against the enemy by a spirited speech. In Curta we recognise 
the Gothic word court, though Pausanias derives it from the Greek 
Kvpra with reference to a bend in the river. t Callimachus. 

X Si Corvinum Corvus Apollineus pennia aut gutture juvit. Prutf. 



474 ATTILA, 

It is stated by Strabo that when Alexander the Great 
was in danger of perishing amidst the sands of the desert, 
on his way from Paraetonium to the temple of Jupiter 
Ammon, he was delivered by the guidance of two crows ; 
nor will it be forgotten that ravens brought food to 
Elijah. With these recollections it seems not improbable 
that Attila may have practised some imposture in the sight 
of his army, or at least that such a tale was purposely 
circulated amongst his followers, to promote the super- 
stitious belief of a communication having been made to 
him by the Deity. There is much discrepancy in the 
various accounts of the route by which he entered * Italy, 
but from the enormous bulk of his army it is probable 
that they may all be founded in truth, and that his army 
advanced in several columns which were to reunite after 
having passed the Alps. The Byzantine emperor Mar- 
cian, who had the administration of the provinces on the 
north-west of the Adriatic, had left their numerous towns 
ungarrisoned. Attila crossed the Drave and the Save, 
and the whole of Styria, Carinthia, Illyria, and Dalmatia, 
was overrun f by his forces without any serious opposi- 

* Prosper. Aquit. says that he entered Italy by the Pannonias. Va- 
lesius Eer. Franc. 1. 4, by Pannonia and Noricum. Callimachus and 
Olaus say that he tried the passage by Noricum and Rhsetia, but, find- 
ing it obstructed, turned aside to Illyria, and, having laid waste the 
coast of the Adriatic, entered Forum Julium. Bonfinius Rer. Hung. 
Dec. 1. 1.-6. that he went first into Illyria. Blondus Hist. Dec. 1. 1. 2. 
that he destroyed all the Illyrian towns with little or no opposition, 
Marcian the emperor of the East, under whose administration they were, 
having left them without garrisons. Sigonius states that he went straight 
to the gorges of the Julian Alps, and crossed the Sontius. 

t Nicolas Olaus says that he burnt Salona, and Spalatum ; overturned 
Tragurium, Scardona, Sibinicum, Jadera, Nova, Segnia, Potentia, Pola, 
Tergestum, and Capriferium, strong and wealthy towns. The account 



AND HIS PREDECESSORS. 475 

tion. Aetius, who commanded the armies of Rome, 
whether from treasonable views, or because Valentinian 
kept the main forces of the empire for the immediate 
defence of Rome, whither he had withdrawn from Ra- 
venna upon the alarm of an approaching invasion, cer- 
tainly made no attempt to oppose the progress of the 
great antagonist whom he had so lately discomfited on 
the plain of Chalons ; but the whole tenor of his life 
seems to mark that he must have been consulting his 
own personal aggrandisement, and utterly disregarding 
the interests of his country. We may figure to ourselves 
the reminiscences of that great and dissembling com- 
mander, while, stretching his hopes to the acquisition of 
power exceeding that of the mightiest emperors, he lay 
in purposed inactivity before Rome, awaiting the effects 
of intemperance and disorganization on the force of 
Attila, and distraction and imbecility on the imperial 
counsels. We may fancy him bringing to mind the 
early instructions of his Scythian father, and of his 
mother who was descended from one of the most illus- 
trious families of Latium ; the youthful energy which 
had led him to excel in every exercise of the field or 
forest ; his first and early military achievements ; his 
sojourn as a hostage in the court of Alaric, and after- 

of Callimachus Experiens is nearly similar, omitting some of those 
towns, and adding Belgratum, Parentnm, and iEmona. There was a 
Belgratum in Forum Julii, which may possibly be meant. Sigonius 
gives a like statement. See also Sabellicus Aquil. p. 71. Jornandes 
does not mention this series of previous operations, and if it be true, as 
hath been asserted, though I think with little probability, that Jadera 
was one of four great stations from whence Attila received intelligence 
and communicated with his great empire, he must have previously 
occupied Illyria and Dalmatia. 



476 - ATTILA, 

wards of Rhuas the Hunnish monarch ; the hypocrisy 
with which he had pretended to embrace Christianity, 
while his heart was imbued with the leaven of paganism ; 
his initiation of his son Carpileo into all the orgies of 
idolatry in the capital of Attila ; his abode in the palace 
of John the usurper ; his advance at the head of a Hun- 
nish army towards Ravenna, the consternation with 
which he heard of the sudden destruction of John, and 
the art with which he made his peace with Valentinian ; 
the military titles which were the reward of his treason, 
extorted from his imbecile rulers ; his command in 
Gaul, where in three campaigns he rescued Aries from 
the Visigoths, the Rhine from Clodion, and overwhelmed 
the Juthungians of Bavaria ; the treachery by which he 
had compromised Boniface, and the ruin he brought 
thereby on the Roman authority in Africa; his personal 
conflict with Boniface, and mortification at the only 
defeat he suffered in his life, and the malignant joy with 
which he heard of the subsequent death of his rival ; his 
flight from the arm of justice to his pagan ally, and the 
authority which he again obtained through the influence 
of the enemies of his country ; his further successes in 
Gaul and Burgundy ; the art with which he reconciled 
Theodoric to the Roman arms ; the energy with which 
he inspired his allies ; the mighty conflict of Chalons ; 
the skill with which he diverted Torismond from aveng- 
ing his father, and persuaded Meroveus to remain con- 
tent with the Parisian kingdom; his secret negociations 
with Attila, and all the vast and daring projects which 
had been since fermenting in his mind. If we place 
this picture before us, we shall probably have filled up 
the outline of historical truth with no unreal imaginations. 



AND HIS PREDECESSORS. 477 

The heart sickens, when we bring to mind the praises 
lavished by Gibbon upon this evil man, the outbreaking 
of whose treachery was probably anticipated by the 
jealousy of his master, and his sudden destruction. The 
existence of a coin bearing the superscription * Flavius 
A'etius imperator, gives reason to suspect that he had 
even committed an overt act of treason before he was 
cut short by Valentinian. 

§ 58. The defence of the Julian Alps, through which 
the Huns were preparing to enter Italy, was entrusted 
to a small number of Visigothic auxiliaries under Alaric 
and f Antal or Athal. iEmona a flourishing town at the 
foot of the Alps was evacuated by its inhabitants on the 
approach of the invaders, by whom it was so completely 
destroyed, that no author recognizes its existence after 
that period. The Roman auxiliaries delayed the advance 
of Attila a little through the Goritian forest ; but, after 
many conflicts, they were forced to abandon the moun- 
tain passes, and multitudes of barbarians poured through 
them with overwhelming impetuosity on the delightful 
district of Forum Julii. On the first alarm of an in- 
tended invasion, Valentinian had taken measures to put 
the important city of Aquileia in a state to resist the 
advance of the enemy. About the year 1 90 before the 
birth of Christ, the Gauls, having entered Carnia from 
Germany, had founded a city near the site of Aquileia, 

* See Strada numismata. 
t He is called Athalia by Ludovicus Cavitellus, Annal. Cremon. 
Sigonius says that Valentinian took measures to defend (novo prresidio 
communivit) the Julian Alps, and strengthened Aquileia with new works 
and a garrison. H. Palladius says that Wolphangus (Lazius I suppose) 
alone recognises the remains of iEraona in Novo Iggio. 



478 ATTILA, 

which was soon destroyed by the Romans. The Istri 
invaded the province four years after, whereupon the 
senate determined to build a town for the defence of the 
neighbouring territory, and in the year 181 before Christ 
Aquileia was founded by a colony from Rome. Augustus 
Caesar * adorned Aquileia with temples and theatres, 
fortified the harbour, and paved the roads. He increased 
its circuit to twelve miles, or, as some say, to fifteen. 
The remains of a double f wall were to be seen in tole- 
rable preservation in the 17th century, running directly 
east, eleven miles in length, like two parallel lines, com- 
posed of stones piled up, but not cemented by any kind 
of mortar. Aquileia stood on the banks and at the 
mouth of the river Natissa, which washed a large part of 
its wall. Sabellicus supposes that the name of the 
Sontius was lost after its junction with the Natissa, 
(whereas on the contrary the modern name of the 
Natisone is lost in the Isonzo) or else that the Natissa 
did not in ancient times fall into the Sontius, or that a 
stream flowed by a subterraneous channel out of the 
Natissa into the sea, because both Pliny and Strabo 
mention the mouth of the Natissa. He adds that in his 
time X on ly a church of the Virgin Mary, and the huts 
of a few peasants and fishermen remained on the site of 
Aquileia ; but that many monuments, public ways, 

* Orosius, I. 6. c. 20. Joannes Candidus says it contained 130,000 
inhabitants. 

t Upon it was the following inscription. Caesar Augustus Aqui- 
lensium restitutor et conditor viam quoque geminam a porta usque 
ad pontem, pertingens juventutis novse Italse suae delectus, posterioris 
longi temporis labe corruptam munivit atque restituit. H. Palladius 
Rer. Jul. 1. 3. p. 37. Utini. 1659. 

\ In the 16th century. Sabell. de rer. Aquil. 1. 1. 



AND HIS PREDECESSORS. 479 

magnificent and sumptuous paved roads, aqueducts, 
sepulchres, and pavements, were still extant, by which 
the great size and distinguished appearance of the an- 
cient town might be easily ascertained. The territory of 
Aquileia was called Forum Julii # and also Carnia. The 
Carnians were a people inhabiting the mountains, where 
they led a pastoral life, their country being too rugged 
for tillage. In the year of our Lord 167 the physician 
Galen followed M. Aurelius and L. Commodus to Aqui- 
leia, and wrote his commentaries there. In 361 in the 
reign of Julian his general Immon besieged Aquileia, 
and finding that the citizens derived great advantage 
from the river as a defence and means of obtaining pro- 
visions, he discontinued the siege, and employed his 
army by an immense exertion to excavate a new bed for 
the river, and conduct it to the sea at a considerable dis- 
tance from the town. The inhabitants were however 
supplied by plenty of cisterns and wells, and did not 
suffer from the loss of water. Aquileia underwent an- 
other siege subsequently, when Maximin was discom- 
fited before its walls and put to death by his own troops. 
Herodian, who gives an account of this siege, states 
(1. 8. c. 4.) that Aquileia was a city of the first magni- 
tude, with an abundant population, being situated on the 
sea-shore in front of all the Illyrian nations, as the empo- 
rium of Italy, delivering to navigators the produce of the 
continent brought down by land or by the rivers, and 
furnishing sea-borne necessaries, especially wine, to the 
upper countries, which were less fertile than the southern 
provinces from severity of climate. 

* Sabellicus, Pliny, Ptolemy. 



480 ATT1LA, 

§ 59. Immediately after crossing the Alps, Attila * 
routed and utterly annihilated the Roman force which 

* Callimachus says " non vicit modd, seel prope delevit, exercitum." 
N. Olaus says that a strong Roman army opposed his progress near the 
bay of Tergestum. Ludovico Cavitelli (Mur. thes. Ant. &c. t. 3. p. 
1267.) says that Valentinian had placed Alaric and Athalia with a force 
of mercenary Visigoths to defend the passes of the Julian Alps, but that 
they were forced by the army of Attila. That at the Tergestine bay and 
the gorges of Italy he routed 500 horsemen (equites) probably meaning 
to give the number of officers or knights, not of the whole force, under 
Forestus of Este, brother to Arcadius, and Emmanuel and other Italian 
troops sent by the prsefect of that region, and slew Forestus and many 
more. He adds that the army of Aetius fell back behind the Po. The 
most detailed account of the operations of Attila, when he laid siege to 
Aquileia in 453 is given by Henr. Palladius Rerum For. Jul. Udini 1659. 
Very few particulars are related by any other author of credit except Sa- 
bellicus who wrote in the preceding century. The relation of Palladius in 
general confirms the statements of Sabellicus, but differs in some re- 
spects, and is much more particular. His work seems to have been 
entirely overlooked by those who have written on the history of this 
period, and the account of Sabellicus has not obtained much more atten- 
tion. They were both natives of the neighbouring town of Utinum, and 
had opportunities of consulting whatever documents existed in the 
archives of the ecclesiastical establishments of the province. G. Franc. 
Palladio, who wrote an Italian account of the province of Friuli (For. 
Jul.) published at Udine in 1660, states that his uncle Henrico Palladio 
de gli Olivi had routed out from the vast ruins of antiquity the early 
events that had taken place in the province. H. Palladius begins by 
lamenting the loss of the history of Priscus, who had written a full 
account of the siege which had been seen by Jornandes, who however 
only extracted a few brief particulars. He mentions also an heroic 
poem on the deeds of Attila, which he had vainly sought to recover, and 
he considers it as lost also. From two lines quoted by Aventinus (Ann. 
Boiorum, 1. 2. p. 130) it appears that the poem alluded to is that which 
has been since published at Leipsic in 1780, entitled De prima expedi- 
tione Attila? regis Hunnorum in Gallias ac de rebus gestis Waltharii 
Aquitanorum principis carmen epicum sseculi sexti. It consists of 1333 
lines of wretched poetry, with many false quantities, such as Inde di- 



AND HIS PREDECESSORS. 481 

was opposed to him in the neighbourhood of Tergeste, 
the modern Trieste, especially the cavalry under Forestus 

lectam vocat ad semet mulierena, and barbarous words grafted on the 
Latin. Men are always inclined to magnify the value of their own dis- 
coveries, and the editor not only thinks the style in parts superior to 
Virgil's Georgics (p, 7), but refers tho date of the poem to the sixth cen- 
tury, I have no hesitation in asserting that it contains internal evidence 
that it could not have been written before the end of the ninth century, 
and is probably attributable to the tenth or beginning of the eleventh. 
In v. 1129 — 30, the writer speaks of the sun in his westward course 
passing Thile, which leaves behind it Scotland and Ireland, thereby de- 
cidedly identifying Thule with Iceland. Iceland was not discovered till 
A.D. 861, when it was uninhabited, covered with wood, and without 
any traces of previous cultivation. I entertain very little doubt that 
the ancient name Thule was identical with that of Thylemark in 
Norway, of which the y is pronounced like a French u. Traces of 
old Phoenician commerce, such as forests felled and mines excavated, 
having been found there, of which the date is anterior to any history 
or tradition concerning that country. Virgil and Juvenal probably 
meant by Thule nothing very definite, but to express the extreme 
North, as Priscus calls the lands severed by the waters of the Baltic 
the islands of the ocean, but Claudian distinctly applied the name 
Thule to the northern extremity of Scotland inhabited by the Ficts. 
The Thule of Procopius was Scandinavia; the extreme northern land 
of Pitheas was to the N. E. of Albion. Statius in two passages calls 
Thule black and dark, alluding to the long wintry nights of the ex- 
treme North, and for the same reason calls it Hesperian, because the 
Hesperides were children of Night and Erebus, but no ancient writer 
has alluded to Thule as lying to the west of Scotland and Ireland. 
In stating therefore that the sun illuminated Thule in his course, 
having left the Scotch and Irish behind his back, the author of this 
rude poem expressly designates the position of Iceland, of which the 
existence was unknown on the European continent before its discovery 
in 861, though the name Thule was attached to it after its discovery, 
nor was any land before known to exist westward of Ireland ; it is 
therefore absolutely impossible that those lines should have been 
written before the latter part of the ninth century. The poem resembles 
in style and substance the later Scandinavian sagas, and it is probablj 

2 I 



482 ATTILA, 

the distinguished ruler of Atestis, the modern Este, and 
other Italian troops which had been placed there by 

a Latin version of some such prose narrative, and the spelling of Thule, 
Thile, seems to have been derived from the Scandinavian orthography 
Thyle. At the end of the tenth century the Scandinavians, who were 
previously illiterate, began to study in Italy, and the discovery of Ice- 
land would have transpired through them. It is probable that this 
may be the earliest work in which the name Thule has been applied 
to Iceland, and it is most likely a production of the 10th century. 
The MS. is said to be of the 13th. The Huns are called in it Avars, 
which the Hungarians of the 8th century were, but not the Huns of 
Attila. The poem contains very little respecting Attila. Walter of 
Aquitaine is the hero; the Burgundian princes Gunther and Hagen, as 
well as Hilda (Hiltgund) a name inseparable from the Attilane narratives, 
are introduced, but with very little reference to Attila, except the flight 
of Walter and Hilda from his court. H. Palladius next alludes to a 
modern work concerning the actions of Attila, which he calls a tissue of 
falsehood and extravagance (deliramenta), and he says that under this 
loss of ancient documents he can only collect a few out of the many 
particulars which are preserved in the MSS. of his country. The tissue 
of falsehoods to which he alludes is undoubtedly the volume of Pigna de 
principibus Atestinis, and an Italian work to the same effect by the 
same author, (Hist. d. Princ. di Este. 1572,) published therefore 81 years 
before that of Palladius. Pigna states his authority to be Thomas of 
Aquileia, secretaiy of the patriarch Nicetas, who at his desire wrote 
a history of the events he had witnessed, and adds that the narrative 
translated and enlarged (explicata diffusamente) by Nicolo Casolio of 
Bologna then existed in the archives of the prince of Este. It is evi- 
dently a narrative concocted to natter the princes of Este, by making 
Forestus prince of Este the hero of the siege, who is said therein to 
have defeated the Huns in every rencountre till he was killed, and to 
have fought a duel with Attila, whom he would have killed if the pagans 
had not interfered. The supposed work of the patriarch's secretary, which 
perhaps never existed, has been the peg whereon Casolio and Pigna 
hung a tissue of fictions. The Provencal translation was also rendered 
into Italian, and published at Venice under the title of La guerra 
d'Attila flagello di Dio. The Italian translator is said by Angelati 
(Biblicth. dei volgarizzatori, vol 4. p. J73) to be Alepi Fino ; it is 



AND HIS PREDECESSORS. 483 

Menapus the governor of Aquileia to oppose his progress. 
The Huns then crossed the Sontius, and directed their 
whole might against Aquileia, which was at that time one of 
the fairest and most flourishing cities in the world, but 
was destined to be trampled under the relentless foot of 
Attila, and to become a desolation and a thing obliterated 
from the earth. Belenus, Felenus, or Belis had been 
the tutelary God of Aquileia, and, although the popu- 
lation was now at least nominally Christian, he was still 
held in great veneration as a guardian saint, if not an 
actual Deity. Herodian (1. 8. c. 7.) states that, when 
Maximin was engaged in the fruitless siege of Aquileia, 
before which he lost his life by the hands of his own 
soldiers, the besieged were encouraged by the oracles of 
their peculiar or provincial God Belin, or, if the word be 
inflected, Belis, whom they worshipped most religiously, 
and considered to be Apollo. The soldiers of Maximin 
affirmed that they beheld the likeness of the God in the 
air, fighting for the town, either superstitiously fancying 
that they saw something unusual, or making use of the 
fable to cover their own unwillingness. Julius Capi- 
tolinus says that the discomfiture of Maximin was fore- 
told by the augurs of the God Belenus, who is men- 
tioned also by Ausonius, in the line Beleni sacratum 
ducis ex templo genus. G. F. Palladio says that, 
when Maxentius was patriarch, about the year 841, a 



asserted by Brunet, vol. 2. p, 134, to have been rendered by J. 31 arc. 
Barbieri, a Modenese. The work professes to be translated briefly from 
the Provencal version of Thomas of Aquileia. The disdain, with which 
Palladius rejected these fictions, gives reason to place more confidence in 
the particulars, which appeared to him to be authenticated by the 
manuscripts be had seen in the convents of Friuli. 

212 



484 ATTILA, 

church and monastery of Benedictine monks was built 
out of the ruins of the temple of the false God of the 
province named Bellenus, not far from Aquileia, and was 
named L'Abbatia della Belligna, but was afterwards 
abandoned on account of malaria, (P. 1. 1. 3. p. 114.) 
The name given to the monastery and derived from that 
of the pagan God, out of the ruins of whose temple it 
was constructed, is very deserving of notice. In the 
same manner the temple of Flora at Brescia became the 
chapel of St. Floranus. These are amongst the numerous 
instances of the manner in which the Christians com- 
pounded with the pagans, not really converting them, 
but permitting the worship of their favourite idol under 
the licensed character of a saint. This baneful practice 
became a main source of the corruption of the church of 
Rome. The Christianity of the Aquileians must have 
continued in a very unsettled state, for Stephen the 
patriarch in 517 was an Arian, and the epitaph of Elias 
the patriarch, who removed the see of Aquileia to Grado, 
states him to have been a Manichaean, Helias Mani- 
chaeorum illecebris captus. Palladius gives eight in- 
scriptions in which Belenus # is named. The last is 
Apollini Beleno C. Aquileien. felix .... He adds that 
the church of St. Felix f the martyr stands where the 
temple of Belenus was ; that the natives do not call it 

* Eodem modo Latini Faunum coluere, Sabini Sancum vel Sangum, 
Romani Quirinum qui est Romulus ; Murica fuit Dea Minturniensium, 
Felenus Aquileiensium. Girardus de Diis gentium. 

t Felix and Fortunatus were two Aquileians who were put to death in 
the reign of Diocletian, not choosing to renounce Christianity. After 
the destruction of Aquileia, their bodies were removed to Clodia. 
H. Palladio, 1. 8. The name was evidently chosen to accommodate the 
worshippers of the heathen God. 



AND HIS PREDECESSORS. 485 

Felix, but Felus (non Felicem sed Felum) with an evi- 
dent allusion, as he observes, to the ancient name of the 
God. He adds that there is another more certain re- 
miniscence of Belenus, because there still exists a noble 
abbey of which the tutelary saint is called St. Martin, 
(and be it recollected that in Latin these saints were 
actually called Divi) but is universally called Belenus 
for no other reason than the recollection of the idol, 
which after so many centuries could not be extinguished 
by any rites of true religion. In fact it was the corrupt 
impropriety of those rites, which, by attributing divinity 
to the saint, nourished and appeared to justify the re- 
miniscence of the idol. Palladius adds that in the first 
age of Christianity the Aquileians did not desist from 
worshipping Belenus with magnificent sacrifices, and 
were so prone to that superstition, that those who were 
initiated in it were a great obstacle to the spread of 
Christianity. Sir John Reresby, who travelled in the time 
of Cromwell, speaking of Venice says, " The palace of 
" the patriarchs is one of the first, where we saw some 
" ancient statues of the Roman Gods, as of Bacchus, 
" Mercury, Pallas, Venus, and others; as also some 
" little couches or beds on which the Romans used 
" to lie when they made feasts in honour of their Gods 
" (quando lectisterna faciebant). Upon these are en- 
" graved certain characters, signifying vows made to the 
" God Bellinus, formerly in great repute amongst the 
" Aquileians, from whom these were taken with many 
" other antiquities, at the razing of one of their chief 
" cities and a Roman colony by Attila king of the Huns."* 



Travels of Sir J. Reresby, p. 64. 



486 ATTILA, 

This is a curious confirmation of the account given by 
Sabellicus and H. Palladius, that Menapus governor of 
Aquileia removed the valuables and furniture of the town 
to the Venetian isle of Gradus before he evacuated it, 
written by a person who does not appear to have known 
that Aquileia itself had been sacked by Attila. Joannes 
Candidus, a lawyer of Venice, whose work was pub- 
lished in 1521, seven years after that of Sabellicus, dis- 
credits the accounts of Menapus and Oricus, but with- 
out any reason assigned, probably from indiscriminate 
disgust at the Atestine forgeries. H. Palladius gives a 
remarkable inscription found at Aquileia, and dated a 
few years before its destruction. Januarius ad im- 
miuentia peccatorum flagella expectanda Aquileiensem 
populum verbi Dei prsedicatione sancte comparavit 
Januarius who thus forewarned the inhabitants of the 
city of its approaching destruction by the scourge of God 
was patriarch before Nicetas, and died in 452 before the 
accomplishment of the visitation he foresaw. 

§ 60. On * the approach of the enemy Menapus 
ordered a simultaneous sally from two gates of the town, 
and slew many of the Huns who had advanced in- 
cautiously, and put their van to flight. The conflict 
was continued for many hours, when he was at last 
forced to give way before the increasing numbers of the 
enemy, and retreated safely into the town. Attila for- 
tified his encampment, and on the following day ac- 
companied by a few followers is said to have reconnoitred 
the town. He had almost reached the liver, when Me- 
napus suddenly attacked him from the rear. Attila with 



* H. Ptilladio. 



AND HIS PREDECESSORS. 487 

difficulty escaped, wounded, and having lost the ornament 
of his helmet, and the greater part, if not the whole, of 
his attendants. After this hazardous encounter he be- 
came more cautious, acted more through the agency of 
his generals, and exposed himself less to personal danger. 
According to another * account, he had been in the 
habit of going his rounds alone and disguised, to observe 
the most assailable points of the city, and having been 
induced by the apparent silence and loneliness of the 
wall to approach nearer than usual, he was surprised by 
a body of armed men, who, having observed him, had 
sallied through a sewer under the walls, not knowing 
him to be the great king, but desirous of extorting from 
a hostile spy the plans of the enemy, and learning what 
hopes they entertained of capturing the town. They 
surrounded him, therefore, wishing to take him alive. 
He placed his back against a steep bank, so that he 
could only be assailed in front, and defended himself; 
but finding the Aquileians, who were not desirous of 
killing him, remiss in the attack, he suddenly sprang 
forward with a loud shout and slew two of them, and 
immediately vaulting over the wall of some buildings 
near the town, he escaped to his own troops. Those, who 
had surrounded him, reported that, while he was looking 
round and collecting his strength for the assault, the 
appearance of his eyes was in a manner celestial, and 
sparks of fire glanced from them, like the energy at- 
tributed by heathen writers to the eyes of their Gods. 
The same anecdote is related by another f historian, 
who states that he was on horseback, and that the cir- 

* Callimachus Experiens. t Nicol;.^ Ola us. 



488 ATTILA,. 

cum stance took place near the end of the siege, the day 
before he observed the departure of the stork. He 
also speaks of the sparks emitted from his eyes, and says 
that when two of the assailants had been slain by him, 
the rest were daunted and suffered him to depart. 
Menapus was a man of great activity and valour ; he 
did not permit the Huns to enjoy a moment of rest by 
day or night, sometimes attacking them by surprise, 
sometimes openly, intercepting their foragers, capturing 
their stragglers, and carrying slaughter and tumult into 
their quarters by night. Attila at the commencement 
of the siege had no instruments for taking towns with 
him except ladders, either because his people were not 
skilful in the construction of engines, or because he 
preferred, through excess of pride, to rely on their per- 
sonal exertions. A desperate attack was however made 
by the Huns with ladders, which was repelled by the 
garrison, who threw stones, fire, and boiling water, on 
the assailants ; Menapus everywhere exerting himself, 
exhorting and exciting his troops, rewarding valour and 
punishing remissness. After a great loss of men, 
Attila was forced to discontinue the assault, but it was 
renewed day after day with no better success, till at last 
the Huns found it necessary to make regular and scien- 
tific approaches, throwing up a bank and constructing 
vinea^ which at that time were the usual protection of 
besiegers. At this period of the siege it is probable that 
Attila undertook the great work at Udine, which was 
at first called * Hunnium, and afterwards Utinum, as a 



* Godfrey of Viterbo says, that the army of Attila was so great, that 
they heaped up a mound in the likeness of a round mountain, with earth 



AND HIS PREDECESSORS. 489 

place of safety for his sick and wounded, and a strong 
depot, whenever he might advance into Italy. The 
conical hill which he raised and fortified, remains to 
this day an imperishable monument of the immensity of 
his resources. All writers concerning it agree that it 
was fortified by Attila during the siege, * having been 
perhaps originally strengthened by Julius Caesar. H. 
Palladius gives an ample account of it to the following 
effect. Attila raised it up and fortified it as a safe post 
during the siege, and a point of support for his future 
operations. During the beleaguerment of Aquileia, the 
concourse to Hunnium had been so great, that many 
had built themselves houses of wood and stone along the 
way to Aquileia. Attila feared that a sally from thence 
might overpower these defenceless houses, and he 
abstained from pressing the siege for a few days, while 
he marked out the site of a town, and surrounded it 
with a strong rampart and gates protected by towers. 
After the capture of Aquileia he built a wall on the 
new rampart, and raised the mound of the Julian for- 
tress, not only the slaves and captives, but all the soldiers, 
bringing earth in the cavity of their shields, till it was 
sufficiently increased. H. Palladius had an opportunity 
of verifying this account, the earth having been ex- 
carried in their shields, though others assert that Julius Caesar raised it. 
He adds Ego Gotfridus montem ilium vidi meis temporibus bene 
munitum et inhabitatum. Sabellicus says those who followed Attila 
built Hunnium caput quadrivium et metropolim, and adds, it is suffi- 
ciently certain the arx was heaped up by the barbarians, though there 
may have been some natural mound which they fortified. It stands 
agreeably, the ground being neither marshy nor hilly. In the middle 
of the town arx eminens velut specula quiedam erigitur. — De Vet. 
Aquil. I. I. * See Sabellicus de Hunnii origine. 



490 ATTILA, 

cavated to make a tank, when the artificial nature of one 
side of the mound was evident, from the admixture of 
worked stones and fragments of tiles with the earth, and 
also by the discovery of an old helmet ; whereas the 
other side of the mound consisted of dry rock. 

§ 61. Having thus raised a secure defence for his own 
troops against the destructive sallies of the garrison, 
Attila pressed the siege with vigour. At the northern 
angle of the town stood a tower of great antiquity, which, 
being occupied by a strong force, very much molested 
Attila. Menapus had strengthened its fortifications, and 
made a wall and ditch in front of it. It was a great 
object to Attila to gain possession of this outwork, be- 
cause it commanded the whole town He therefore ap- 
proached his works to it, and filled the ditch with earth 
and stones, and tried by his archery to drive the Aqui- 
leians from the walls, while he sent light troops across 
the ditch to break down the wall with hatchets. Having 
succeeded in clearing the walls by incessant vollies of 
arrows, they overleaped the fosse, singing barbarian omens 
of victory. Menapus came immediately to the relief of 
the tower, and hot iron, molten lead, and blazing pitch, 
were thrown upon the Huns. Attila goaded on fresh 
troops to the attack, compelling them not only by words of 
command, but by the sword, to advance to certain death. 
But at length they gained a footing on the inner side of 
the fosse, and began to destroy the wall, where the 
mortar of the new works was not perfectly hardened, 
and a narrow breach was made. Menapus singly resisted 
in the breach, and sallied through it, followed by a great 
power of Aquileians, and they forced their way even to 
Attila himself through the flying enemy, throwing 



AND HIS PREDECESSORS. 491 

torches and firebrands amongst them. Oricus * brother 
of the governor sallied at the same time through the 
nearest gate with the Roman cavalry, and made great 
havoc amongst the enemy, killing all stragglers, and in- 
creasing the disorder of the discomfited Huns. Attila 
immediately ordered his own cavalry to advance, and 
charged at their head. After a severe conflict near the 
villa of Menoetius, Oricus was either killed or mortally 
wounded, and his followers nearly all cut off. Menapus, 
wounded, returned through the breach in the outer wall, 
and some of the Huns forced their way in, but their 
comrades were beat off by the engines of the garrison, 
and he got safe into the town. Night succeeded, and the 
Huns continued to sap the foundations of the tower, 
but, being only protected by their shields, they were at 
last forced to fall back with great loss of men. The 
Aquileians however had sacrificed their whole cavalry 
and its leader, a loss which outweighed all the previous 
slaughter of the enemy, and the town was become ruinous 
and almost untenable. Forestus and many other valiant- 
men had fallen in its defence. Menapus, therefore, 
despairing of successful resistance, as the army of A'etius 
remained inactive behind the Po, and no hopes of relief 
were held out to him, sent by night the children and 
women, and the wounded men to the nearest island, 
Gradus, with the patriarch Nicetas and the church 

* According to Palladius Oricus was killed. Sabellicus says he was 
wounded and removed to the isle of Gradus, and states the battle to 
have been fought near the villa of Menoetius. He also says that he had 
read that in this conflict Attila and Menapus came in contact with each 
other, and that Attila was unhorsed and saved by his guards, bat no 
reliance can be placed on that tale. 



492 ATTILA, 

utensils, being confident that the barbarians, who were 
unskilled in navigation, would not pursue their enemies 
by sea. He then attempted to repair the fortifications 
of the town and the wall in front of it. The third # 
month was now far spent, f since Attila had commenced 
operations against Aquileia, and yet there was no certain 
prospect of taking the town. His troops murmured, 
and began to talk of raising the siege, when he observed 
a stork remove its young from the long contested tower. 
Thereupon he turned to his soldiers, and, auguring its 
speedy fall from that circumstance, he exhorted them to 
make a most vigorous attack upon it. Having been un- 
dermined and shaken before, it was at last beat out of 
the perpendicular by the immense stones thrown by the 
engines which he had caused to be constructed. It fell 
in the night time with a tremendous crash, which made 
the whole population start out of their beds ; and, if 
Attila had immediately attacked the city, he might have 
taken it in the first moment of confusion. The obscurity 
of the night and the ignorance of the Huns as to the 
actual state of the defences gave the besieged a short 
respite, and Menapus quickly constructed an inner for- 
tification with mud and stones, but he was aware that 
such a defence could not hold out long. At day break, 

* Sabellicus de Hunnii origine. 
t Some writers have erroneously allotted three years to the siege. 
Jornandes only says that it lasted a long time, diu multoque tempore, 
but that does not imply years, and it is quite certain that the whole of 
his operations in Friuli and his advance into Italy were comprised in 
one season. The false tale of the triennial siege of Aquileia probably 
arose from the anachronism of the inaccurate Procopius, who has placed 
the death of Aetius before the capture of that place. Such a writer did 
not deserve the praise Gibbon has bestowed upon him. 



AND HIS PREDECESSORS. 493 

Attila, having seen the state of things, made a bloody 
attack, and gained possession of the ruins of the tower ; 
and, having driven the Aquileians behind the old wall, 
he began to strengthen the post, intending to use it for 
offensive operations against the town Menapus now 
despaired of making good the defence of Aquileia ; pro- 
visions were beginning to fail, and Valentinian had 
abandoned the outfit of a fleet which he had ordered to 
be equipped at Ravenna at the commencement of the 
siege. The governor therefore removed the greater part 
of his people to Gradus during the night, and placed 
statues or figures on the walls to look like sentinels, and 
prevent the enemy from noticing the evacuation of the 
city by the garrison. When the day broke, the Huns at 
first wondered at the unusual silence, but at length ob- 
serving birds alight on some of the figures, they per- 
ceived that the fortifications were abandoned. They 
immediately forced their way through the new wall, and 
killed all the men, children, and aged women, who were 
still remaining in the town ; the younger women found 
in it were reserved for the embraces of the conquerors. 
Two matrons of high rank, and distinguished for beauty 
and chastity, having lost their husbands during the siege, 
had continued day and night mourning over their tombs, 
and refused to leave them, when the town was evacuated. 
Their names were Digna and Honoria. When the de- 
fences were stormed, to escape the incontinency of the 
Huns, Digna ascended an adjoining tower, which stood 
beside the river, and, having * veiled her head, she 



* A remnant of pagan customs, the veiling of the head being a cere- 
mony attending the self devotion of a victim to the Diis Manibus. 



494 ATTILA, 

threw herself into it and perished. Honoria, having 
thrown her arms round the stone sepulchre in which the 
remains of her husband were interred, clung to it with 
such perseverance, that she could not be dragged from 
it, till slain by the swords of the enemy. Thus fell 
Aquileia, 635 years after its foundation, perhaps # the 

* Ausonius, who wrote in the preceding century, makes Aquileia the 
ninth amongst the most distinguished cities of the empire, placing 
before her Rome, Constantinople, Carthage, Antioch, Alexandria, 
Treves, Milan, and Capua, but she had probably made rapid advances 
since his time, and the testimony of Herodian and Justinian is decisive 
as to her magnitude. Nicolas Olaus says that, on the day when Attila 
saw the stork carry its young to a neighbouring marsh, he made a 
vigorous, but unsuccessful attack ; that on the following day he ordered 
the trappings of every fourth horse to be cast into the ditch, and then 
attempted to destroy the wall by fire, and prepared all his engines to 
batter it ; but the wall, being weakened by the fire, fell with a great 
crash; that the Aquileians made a stout defence, but Attila sent his 
wounded to the camp, and brought out his reserve, and after three 
hours fighting the town T*as taken, and all, without respect to sex or 
age, were put to the sword, except a few of the most beautiful women 
who were reserved by the conquerors. The anecdote of Digna is men- 
tioned by almost all who have written concerning the siege; that of 
Honoria I have seen only in H. Palladius. Callimachus writes that, 
on seeing the stork depart, Attila battered the tower, and in the course 
of three hours took the town, which was sacked, the king being exas- 
perated at the long and obstinate defence which it had made, and he 
adds that 37,000 persons are said to have been slain. The accounts 
of Sabellicus and H. Palladius, who had access to whatever manuscripts 
existed in the ecclesiastical establishments of Friuli, are entitled to 
more credit than those of the Hungarian writers, and the relation they 
give is very consistent and probable. Thurocz fChron. p. 1. c. 18.) 
says that he put the fourth part of the horse-gear under the wall. 
Pray rejects without cause as improbable the account given by Blondus 
(Hist. Dec. 1. 1. 2.) that before the evacuation the Aquileians placed all 
the statues in the town upon the ramparts, and that the Huns dis- 
covered the artifice by the birds alighting upon them. Blondus pro- 



AND HIS PREDECESSORS. 495 

greatest town in the West after Rome. Almost all the 
writers, who mention its overthrow, say that it was com- 
pletely burnt and demolished, so that the barbarians 
seemed desirous of obliterating every vestige of its ex- 
istence, but many circumstances contradict that assertion, 
which has been hastily adopted by modern historians. 
Aquileia is frequently mentioned as existing after the 
departure of Attila, and it is certain that the patriarchs 
continued to dwell there till the time of the invasion of 
the Lombards, from whom the last calamity of the town 
proceeded. Justinian, long after the time of Attila, calls 
Aquileia the greatest of all the cities of the West, as if it 
were still existing. Many particulars * indeed are known 
concerning Aquileia, down to the period of the removal 
of the see. Nicetas, the patriarch, returned from Gradus, 
after the retreat of Attila, and exerted himself to restore 
the church and the town. The fugitives began to re- 
assemble from different quarters, and many of them, 
having been supposed to have died in the war, found 
their wives provided with other husbands. This led to 
a correspondence between Nicetas and Pope Leo, the 
patriarch complaining that many of the women had re- 
married, knowing that their husbands were in captivity, 

bably obtained the anecdote from the writers of Friuli. The absurd 
story of three years duration to the siege has been propagated by 
Diaconus Gest. Rom. 1. 15. and Flavius Blondus 1 1.2. and others. 
Desericius (De init. &c. 1. 4. pt. 2. c. xii.) makes it last from 452 to 454. 
The best chronicles are decisive as to the date of the siege. Belius in 
his notes to Calanus c. 15. suggests that it probably lasted three mouths. 
Tillemont (Hist. imp. torn, vii.) makes the time much shorter, for he 
says that Leo returned to Rome on the 10th of July, after having con- 
cluded the peace with Attila, which can scarcely be correct. 
* See G. Franc. Palladio Hist, del Friuli. 1660. 



496 ATTILA, 

and not expecting them to return. Leo exculpated the 
women who really believed their husbands to be dead, 
and condemned the others as guilty of adultery, but he 
ordered all to return to their first husbands # under 
pain of excommunication. He directed those who had 
been baptized by heretics, not having been before bap- 
tized, to be confirmed by imposition of hands as having 
taken the form of baptism without the sanctification, but 
he forbad rebaptism. The heretics alluded to were the 
Sabellians and Arians, of whom there were many in the 
army of Attila, and who appear to have made common 
cause with the pagans. The whole letter of Leo is 
extant, and proves that Nicetas did not fall, as has been 
asserted, in the siege. He died about the year 463, f 
and his statue and epitaph were placed in the patriarchal 
hall at Udine. 

§ 62. During the siege detachments from the army 

* He ordered the ladies who had been the unfortunate victims of 
barbarian outrage to do penance, with a singular reason assigned, 
quia id forsan sine aliqua corporis voluptate fieri non potuit. 

+ Mareellianus succeeded him, and died in 499. Marcellinus was the 
next patriarch, and a Latin inscription in the hall at Udine states that 
he restored the church and patriarchal palace of Aquileia, which had 
been destroyed by the Huns. Stephen succeeded in 517. In 528 
Narses quartered his army in Aquileia, and furthered the restoration of 
its buildings, erected several towers, and rebuilt part of the walls. 
Macedonius was the next patriarch, in whose time (A. D. 554) a synod 
of Italian prelates was held at Aquileia, which is mentioned by Bede. 
Paulinus succeeded in 555, Probinus in 572, and Elias in 574. Under 
the authority of Pope Pelagius in 580, he removed the see from 
Aquileia to Grado, where a synod was held, by which Grado was de- 
clared to be the metropolitan see of Venice and Istria. The rescript of 
Pelagius confirming that declaration is extant. The violence of the 
Lombards occasioned the removal, and from that moment, not from the 
days of Attila, dates the final decay of Aquileia. 



AND HIS PREDECESSORS. 497 

of Attila carried devastation far and wide in the adjoin- 
ing territory, and treason was at work to betray into his 
hands several of the cities of Italy. Treviso, then Tar- 
visium, * is said to have been yielded to the Huns 
through the means of its bishop Helinundus, who was 
probably inclined to the Arians, and of Araicus Tem- 
pestas, and Verona to have been given up by Diatheric 
or Theodoric, who has been celebrated in various Scan- 
dinavian and German romances under the name of 
Thidrek of Bern, meaning Verona, and has been much 
confounded with Theodoric the great, afterwards king 
of Italy, who was not then born. After the demolition 
of Aquileia, Attila marched immediately against Con- 
cordia, a flourishing town, of which the ruler Janus (who 
has become the hero of an Italian, perhaps originally a 
Provencal, romance) had probably molested him during 
the siege. Janus, with his wife Ariadne, fled to the 
nearest islands, and the conqueror entered and anni- 
hilated the deserted city. One church, that of St. Ste- 
phen, and a few cottages were the only remains of 
Concordia f at the end of the 15th century. Attila 



* See Juvencus Calanus Dalmata. Nic. Olaus and Callimaclms Ex- 
periens call the priest of Tarvisium Helmundus prsesul or antistes, and 
the latter calls Diathericus Diamericus wrongly. J.Bonifacio, in the 
history of Tarvisium in Italian (1. 4. p. 197) states that Heliundus or 
Helviandus was bishop of that place, and by a speech to the people 
persuaded the Tarvisians to throw themselves on the mercy of Attila, 
and surrender their fortifications; and he mentions a distinguished 
individual of the family of Tempestas, called Articus. Pius Nic. Ga- 
rellius, in a letter published by Belius in his Adparatus ad Hist. Hung, 
proposes to read Artuicus for Araicus in Juv. Calanus. 

t Sabellicus Aquil. edit. Franc, p. 54 & 77, first/ printed in 1514. 
G. F. Palladio states that marbles, vases, mosaic pavements, and inscrip- 

'2 K 



498 ATTILA, 

next exterminated Altinum. Patavium (Padua), Cre- 
mona, Vincentia (Vicenza), Mediolanum (Milan), 
Brixia (Brescia), and Bergomum (Bergamo), were suc- 
cessively captured. The fugitives from Aquileia had 
established themselves in the isle of Gradus, the Con- 
cordians fled to Crapulae, afterwards Caorli, the Altinates 
to Torcellum, Maiorbium, and Amorianum, and the 
Paduans to Rivus altus, which is now nearly the centre 
of Venice, and is recognized in the modern name of the 
Rialto. The foundations of the bright city of the waters 
was then laid, upon the sedgy islands that fringed the 
Adriatic, by the refugees from the various towns of Italy 
that were dismantled by the barbarian. Valentinian had 
fled from his palace at Ravenna to the protection of the 
eternal city, and Attila, while besieging Padua, or at a 
later period of his progress, is said to have received John 
the Arian bishop of Ravenna, who came with his clergy 
in white robes to solicit his mercy for their town and its 
population, and perhaps # to offer him the assistance of 

tions, were in his time (the 17th century) still turned up on the site of 
Concordia. 

* The Acta Sanctorum (torn. 2. ad diem xxi Januar.) give a long ac- 
count of this interview. Attila says that he is the scourge of God, and 
the bishop of Ravenna, like him of Troyes, answers that he does not 
resist the holy visitation. See also Card. Riccobaldus Raven. Eccl. 
canon, act. 8. 1. torn. 1. Thurocz (Chron. c. 20) says, that John, arch- 
bishop of Ravenna, polluted with the Arian perfidy, had made twelve 
cardinals of his sect in opposition to the Catholics, and went out with 
his clergy in white robes, and offered, if he would adhere to the Arian 
creed, to reduce all Italy under his authority. Nicolas Olaus places the 
event after the capture of Ferrara, and before the taking of Pavia. He 
describes John as a virulent Arian, who had created twelve cardinals in 
defiance of the Pope to disseminate his doctrines. Callimachus states 
that it took place later, after he had ravaged the country south of 
the Po. 



AND HIS PREDECESSORS. 499 

the Arians to subjugate all Italy without a conflict, if he 
would adopt their faith. He is said to have answered 
that he would spare the town, but would throw down 
their gates and trample them under the feet of his 
cavalry, that the inhabitants might not in their vanity 
imagine their own strength to have been the cause of 
their preservation. On his march to Concordia, Attila 
is said to have met some* mountebanks, who, in the 
hope of obtaining money, jumped with singular skill 
and agility amongst some swords which were artfully 
arranged. Thinking the employment despicable for 
men who had evidently sufficient bodily power and acti- 
vity to use the sword efficiently in warfare, he ordered 
them to be covered with armour and to imitate him in 
vaulting on horseback with the weight of metal on them, 
which they proved unable to perform; neither could 
they bend the bow properly, nor fix the arrow in the 
string. He therefore ordered their well-fed bodies to be 
reduced by spare diet and exercise, and enrolled them 
amongst his recruits. After the capture of Padua, a 
distinguished poet named f Marullus the Calabrian, and 



* Nicolas Olaus. Callimachus Experiens relates the same anecdote 
in other words, the two passages appearing to have been variously ren- 
dered from one original, which was probably an extract from the lost 
work of Priscus. 

t In Moreri's dictionary, and in an article evidently borrowed from 
him in the French Encyclopaedia, this person is called Tacitus Marullus, 
but I have not been able to discover from what source the name Tacitus 
has been derived. It cannot have been forged for no purpose, and 
seems to imply access to some extract at least from the MS. of Priscus 
which has not been given to the public. The name Tacitus is not to be 
found in the extant works of any known ancient writer concerning 
these affairs. I have examined the three old editions of Callimachus, 

2 K 2 



500 ATTILA, 

who was probably the same person whose poem detailing 
the latter part of the siege of Troy which had been " left 

but he is styled Marulhas Calaber in all of them. He is so called by 
Nicolas Olaus, and Attilano Marullo della Calabria by G. F. Palladio. 
It is difficult to understand how the name Tacitus should have crept 
into Moreri without any foundation. The identity of this Marullus with 
the poet called Quintus Calaber, has been suggested by the author of 
Nimrod, vol. 3. p. 113, to which the reader is referred, but he does not 
give sufficient reasons. It may be further observed, that Herman in his 
edition of the Argonautics of Orpheus, has proved, by internal evidence 
of style, that both that work and the Paraleipomena of Quintus Calaber, 
were written in the century wherein Attila flourished. The assertion 
that Marullus was a Calabrian and a very distinguished poet is nearly a 
sufficient identification, for there was no other distinguished poet of that 
period, certainly not two distinguished Calabrians. The name Quintus, 
which has descended to us coupled with the designation, is only a prse- 
nomen, and the appellation Quintus Calaber is only equivalent to John 
of Antioch, or Thomas of Ercildoune, leaving the family name un- 
mentioned. Further, the author of the Paraleipomena, 1. 12. v. 310, 
speaks of having fed the sheep of Diana in her consecrated territory at 
Smyrna. The commentator Pauw believed that he actually attended 
upon sheep, of which there was a breed, as he says, at Smyrna with 
very fat tails ! Others imagined that he had a flock of young pupils ; 
but the words have evident reference to a passage at the beginning of 
the Theogonia of Hesiod, v. 23, in which he says that the Muses in- 
structed him in holy song while feeding his lambs under sacred Helicon. 
Hesiod has also been supposed to have been a shepherd, on account of 
those lines, by which he seems merely to have meant, that he was plod- 
ding along the simple path of life, and providing for the necessities of 
the body, till the aspirations of the Muses, as afterwards expressed, 
gave him a new existence. Quintus Calaber says that he fed them at 
Smyrna, because that was the reputed birth-place of Homer. It is 
known that Ennius, the Calabrian poet of the Messapian family (Ennius 
antiquo Messapi ab origine regis. Sil. Ital.), pretended to be Homer 
himself, and consequently Pythagoras by a later incarnation or me- 
tempsychosis (Mseonides Quintus pavone a Pythagoreo. Pers.) ; and it 
seems that the author of the Paraleipomena, in assuming the name 
Quintus the Calabrian, and asserting that he fed sheep at Smyrna in his 



AND HIS PREDECESSORS. 501 

untold by the blind bard of Greece," has descended to 
us under the name of Quintus Calaber, recited a poem 
in his praise, which gave him such offence, because it 
referred his origin to the gods of Greece and Rome, 
that he ordered it to be burnt and the poet put to death, 
but he remitted the latter part of the sentence. This 
anecdote, which was probably extracted from the MS. of 
Priscus, has been misunderstood by those who ima- 
gined from it that he repudiated divine honours, whereas 
the offence was the connecting him with a worship he 
detested, and with Bacchus or some other deity of the 
Pelasgians. Herodotus relates that Scylas, king of the 
Scythians, was beheaded by his own subjects in Borys- 
thenes, and his palace, which was adorned with marble 
sphinxes and gryphons, fulminated and burnt by the 

earliest youth, meant to lay claim to an identity with Homer and 
Ennius, and to insinuate that their souls and their gift of song had 
passed into his body. That he was a heathen appears by the tenor of 
his poem, and therefore he was likely to have been one of those who 
hailed the dominion of Attila with satisfaction. It may be also re- 
marked, that the Argonautics of Orpheus, written certainly about this 
period, have very much the appearance of a poem framed to be recited 
at the court of Attila, the course of navigation attributed to the ship 
Argo through an inland sea (called the sea of Saturn) to the Baltic and 
British Channel and through the Straits of Gibraltar, being rather 
suited to the ears of the Goths and Huns than of a Grecian or Latin 
audience. The designation Attilano Marullo della Calabria, poeta in- 
signe di quella eta, given by G. F. Palladio to the poet who had dis- 
gusted Attila, is singular, for it seems to imply that he had, in conse- 
quence of having written the poem in question, assumed the praenomen 
Attilanus, as the name of Quintus may have been assumed with refe- 
rence to the Homeric poem. The construction of the Italian language 
would not admit the introduction of an adjective without an article' 
before the name Marullo, and the word Attilano must have been meant 
as part of his appellation, and not as descriptive of him. 



502 ATTILA, 

god of the Scythians, because he adopted the Bacchic 
rites, which were held in abhorrence amongst them. 
That furnishes an explanation to the indignation of 
Attila. 

§ 63. During the attack of Florence, * a statue of the 
god Mars, which notwithstanding the edict of Caesar still 
occupied an elevated station in the town, having been, 
however, removed from the temple which was dedicated 
to St. John, fell into the Arno, probably knocked down 
by the engines of the besiegers. At Vincentia Attila 
met with a stout resistance, and, finding his men hesi- 
tate, he leaped into the fosse, and wading through the 
water, which was breast-deep, led them to the assault, 
and was the first who scaled the rampart. But at Brixia 
he met with more dangerous opposition, and received a 
wound in the hand, which induced him to consign f that 
city to more complete destruction than the rest of the 
conquered places. Yet Brixia was a town in which 
paganism appears to have lingered particularly. The 
temple of Flora had been converted into a church dedi- 
cated to St. Floranus, to accommodate the heathens who 
adhered to their tutelary divinity, furnishing, like the 
dedication of the temple of Belis, or Felus, to St. Felix at 
Aquileia, one of the many instances in which the Church 
of Rome compromised with the pagans, whom it admitted 
within its pale without really converting them from idola- 
try, thus laying the foundation of its own corruption; but, 
in the Triumpline valley hard by, the iron statue of the 

* John Villani Hist. Fiorent. He calls Attila, Totila king of the 
Huns, flagellum Dei. 

t Nicolas Olaus. According- to some accounts he relented and spared 
the town. 



AND HIS PREDECESSORS. 503 

god Tyllinus had escaped amidst the general destruction 
of idols, and remained after the days of Attila. Milan 
submitted to the conqueror, and a curious anecdote is 
related in a fragment of Priscus, for the preservation of 
which we are indebted to his having used an uncommon 
word for a bag, which caused it to be quoted by the 
lexicographer Suidas. Attila* having observed in Milan 
a picture of the Roman emperors seated upon a throne 
of gold, and Scythians prostrate before them, ordered 
himself to be painted on a throne, and the Roman empe- 
rors bearing sacks on their shoulders and pouring out 
gold from them at his feet. After inflicting this lesson 
upon the pride of the Caesars he continued his victorious 
career, plundering Ticinum (Pavia), Mantua, Placentia, 
Parma, and Ferrara, and, as Jornandes asserts, demo- 
lished almost all Italy, which gives some colour to the 
improbable assertion of the Hungarian f writers, that he 
despatched his general Zowar to ravage Apulia, Calabria, 
and the whole coast of the Adriatic, destroying a town 
named Catona, as having been founded by Cato. Ge- 
minianusjj bishop of Mutina (Modena), afterwards 
sanctified, is said to have played the same game as Lupus 
and John of Ravenna, and by submission to have conci- 
liated the favour of the invader and saved the town. 
Attila is particularly stated to have laid waste iEmilia 
(which must mean the country traversed by the via 
iEmilia, between Aquileia and Rimini, Pisa and Tor- 

* Suidas ad vocem Korucos. t Thurocz, Nic. Olaus, and others. 

t Sigonius Imp. Occ. Nicolas Olaus says that it was destroyed. 
There is a tradition that at the prayer of Geminianus it was enveloped 
in so dense a mist that the Huns could not discover it. Ritins states 
that Attila, after his interview with Leo, re-entered Ravenna and put 
its bishop, John, to death. 






504 ATTILA, 

tona) and Marchia, which has been explained to signify 
the territory of Bergamo, but was in truth used to de- 
signate the March of Ancona. Ferrara is said to have 
been destroyed, though, perhaps, at an earlier period of 
the campaign. 

§ 64. Thus far had Attila proceeded without meeting 
any material obstacle after the reduction of Aquileia, but 
Aetius had probably a considerable force under his com- 
mand for the protection of Rome, and, since the Huns 
had crossed the Po, he had not ceased to hang upon their 
flanks, and to take every opportunity of cutting off their 
stragglers. A course of desultory victories and continual 
plunder had probably contributed to relax the discipline 
and diminish the numbers of the army of Attila. He 
deliberated whether or not to proceed against Rome, and 
such deliberations generally end by the adoption of the 
weaker counsel. Evil forebodings had become prevalent 
amongst his vassal kings, who represented to him that 
Alaric had not long survived the invasion and plunder of 
the Romulean capital, and the mind of Attila appears at 
that time to have been influenced by a vague super- 
stitious apprehension. He halted, as the later * autho- 
rities assert near the confluence of the Mincio and the 
Po, but it has been presumed from the relation of Jor- 
nandes who names the place Acroventus Mambuleius, 
where the Mincio is forded by travellers, that it must 
have been where the great Roman road crossed the river 
at Ardelica, the modern Peschiera, near the point where 
it issues f from the Benacus or Lago di Garda, close to 

* Nic. Olaus, Callirnachus, Ritius, <Scc. 
t Gibbon, always more anxious to round a period, than to be correct, 
states that it was " where the slow-winding Mincius is lost in the 
foaming waves of the Benacus/' whereas the lake Benacus is the 



AND HIS PREDECESSORS. 505 

the farm of Virgil, and the Sirmian peninsula of Catullus. 
It is however by no means improbable that the river 
might have been forded at some place to the south 
of Mantua, though the opinion of Maffei has led to the 
supposition that the place designated was close to Pes- 
chiera. Governolo, near the confluence of the Mincio 
and the Po, is a much more probable situation for the 
halt of Attila, after having ravaged the southern banks 
of the Po ; for if he had actually fallen back as far as the 
Benacus before he received the embassy, he must have 
previously abandoned the prosecution of his enterprize, 
which is not even surmised by any writer on the subject. 
While he was hesitating, whether to advance and attempt 
the complete subjugation of Rome, or to give way to the 
forebodings of his advisers, # Zowar is said to have re- 
turned with great plunder from the coast of the Adriatic, 
and at the same moment an embassy from Valentinian, 
who had despatched Leo the pope or bishop of Rome, 
Avienus f a man of consular dignity, and the praetorian 

reservoir from which the Mincio flows into the Po. The word Mam- 
buleio in Jornandes is corrected by Valesius Rer. F. 1. 4. and Ortelius 
App. Geograph. into Ambulejo, hodie Governum oppidum. Gaudentius 
Merula de antiq. Gall. Cisalp. 1. 2. c. 17. says, that on the banks of the 
Mincius, which flows out of the Benacus, is a town, which we now 
call Governum, in which place Attila met Leo. Governolo is south of 
Mantua, near the point where the Mincio falls into the Po. The 
words of Jornandes are " in Acroventu Mambuleio ubi Mincius com- 
meantium frequentatione transitur." See also Blondus Ital. illustrata 
147-4, who states the interview to have taken place at Governolo. 
* Nic. Olaus. 
t Prosper is the authority for the presence of Avienus and Trigetius. 
Carpileo and Cassiodorius were certainly with them. The words of 
Jornandes seem to imply that Leo was there of his own accord and 
on his own authority. Gennadius Avienus, of the family of the Corvini, is 



506 ATTILA, 

prsefect Trigetius, arrived at the camp, of Attila. Leo 
is stated by his biographer * and some other writers to 

mentioned by Sidonius to have been at the time of Count Ricimer's 
marriage in 468, a man of advanced age and great influence, having 
however risen to the consulship by good fortune rather than by merit. 
In the Saturnalia of Macrobius, there is mention of a youth of great 
promise named Avienus. " Verecundiam Avieni probi adolescentis 
juva." Sat. 6. c. 17. " Mi Aviene, instituenda est adolescentia tua, quae 
i1a docilis est, ut discenda prseripiat." Sat. 7. c. 3. If the author of the 
Saturnalia assumed the apparently mystic name of Aurelius Ambrosius 
Theodosius Macrobius after the death of Stilicho and the dispersion of 
his accomplices and wrote at that period, the Avienus he mentions 
might have been 60 at the time of the embassy and perhaps the iden- 
tical person. There was about this period a distinguished Avienus sur- 
named Rufus Festus, whose translations of Aratus and the Periegesis of 
Dionysius and some original poems including one called Ora Maritima 
are still extant. In a little poem concerning himself, he says that he 
dwelt at Rome, was in the flower of youth, and had been twice pro- 
consul. He 'is said to have flourished in the times of Theodosius the 
younger, Marcian, and Leo the Thracian. Fabr. Bibl. Lat. v. 3. p. 151. 
In all the chronicles and fasti collected by Roncallius, Padua 1787, the 
consul is styled simply Avienus, except in the last by Joseph Maria 
Stampa where he is named Gennadius Avienus. Onufrius Panvinius in 
his Capitoline fasti styles him Gennadius Valerius Corvinus Avienus, 
and he is said to be so styled in an old inscription. Onufrius mentions 
a consul Rufus Magnus Faustus Avienus senior in 501, and a junior with 
the same names in 502. 

* Acta Sanctorum, 1. 1. April. 11. See also Nic. Olaus. It is worthy 
of observation that at this period the appellation of Pope was not con- 
fined to the Bishop of Rome, but that all bishops, many of whom were 
styled patriarchs, were addressed by the title of papa, which meant father 
even in the time of Homer. The bishop of Rome certainly exercised 
metropolitan jurisdiction over the bishops of all the Western empire 
granted to him in 445. Novell. Theodos. tit. 24. I find a constitution 
of Theod. and Valent. addressed to Aetius master of the forces and 
patrician, ordering that the bishops of Gaul and the other provinces 
shall do nothing against the old custom, without authority of the vene- 
rable pope of the eternal city, on the complaint of Leo against Hilarius 



AND HIS PREDECESSORS. 507 

have thrown himself at the feet of Attila, and to have 
delivered a speech of the most abject and unconditional 

bishop of Aries. The preamble recites that the holy synod had con- 
firmed the authority of the primate of Rome, and that Hilarius had im- 
properly removed bishops, and ordained others against the wish of the 
citizens. The authority therefore of Leo over the bishops even of the 
Western empire was not considered to be of primitive and divine autho- 
rity, but established by the emperor and confirmed by a synod. Dios- 
corus bishop of Alexandria excommunicated pope Leo. In the pro- 
ceedings of the general synod of Chalcedon, as detailed by Evagrius, 
1. 2. c. 4, bishops Paschatius and Lucentius, and Boniface a presbyter, 
represented Leo archbishop of the great and elder Rome as president 
(proedros) of the Western, Anatolius presiding (proedreuontos) over the 
Constantinopolitane, church. In the course of the proceedings, the 
synod are stated to have exclaimed, The pope Leo believes thus ; Cy- 
rillus hath believed thus. The pope has thus expounded ; and after- 
wards they exclaimed, Anatolius believes so also. Leo protested against 
the equal authority given to Anatolius by the synod of Chalcedon, not 
however alleging divine right. See Novell. Valent. tit. 17. Leo ep. ad 
Marcian. Pulcher. Anatol. It seems as if the pretensions of Leo had 
given some umbrage to the emperor, for I find in Valent. Nov. tit. 12, 
given at Rome 17 Mai. 452, Herculano cons, a peremptory denial of 
any jurisdiction of bishops in causes between clergy and laymen, or 
in any matters except of religion ; a direction to all slaves who may 
have been ordained, unless they be bishops or presbyters, to return to 
their condition cf slavery; and a declaration that no slave shall be 
ordained or admitted to be a monk so to avoid his bondage, and that 
clerks exercising any trade or business shall lose the privilege of 
clergy. The promulgation of this decree immediately after Leo had 
been reckoned to have saved the empire, seems to indicate personal 
jealousy. Leo I. was made pope in 440 and died in 461. The bishop 
of Rome exercised metropolitan jurisdiction over all the bishops of the 
Western empire, and, when the limbs of that empire were gradually 
detached previous to its final dissolution, the different tribes that over- 
run and possessed themselves of its various provinces did not persecute 
or interfere with the clergy, but generally after a short time were bap- 
tized into their faith, and even Attila did not destroy or remove them. 
but seems rather to have tried to corrupt them, and make them service- 



508 ATTILA, 

submission. He is made to say, after the manner of 
Lupus, that evil men had felt his scourge, and to pray 
that the suppliants who addressed him might feel his 
clemency. That the senate and Roman people, once 
conquerors of the world, but now defeated, humbly asked 
pardon and safety from Attila the king of kings ; that 
nothing amid the exuberant glory of his great actions, 
could have befallen him more conducive to the present 
lustre of his name or to its future celebrity, than that 
the people, before whose feet all nations and kings had 
lain prostrate, should now be suppliant before his. That 
he had subdued the whole world, since it had been 
granted to him to overthrow the Romans, who had con- 
quered all other nations. That they prayed him who 
had subdued all things to subdue himself; that, as he 
had surpassed the summit of human glory, nothing could 
render him more like to Almighty God, than to will 
that security should be extended through his protection 



able to his views. Hence it happened, that, although the civil authority 
became vested in some barbarian conqueror, the original connexion 
between the bishops and the see of Rome received no interruption ; and 
they continued to correspond with him without any objection on the 
part of their illiterate rulers, not from any doctrine of the church, but 
merely because he had been the metropolitan while the empire was 
entire, and, under the peculiar circumstances of its dissolution, no 
offence was taken at the continuance of the intercourse which had sub- 
sisted between him and the provincial bishops. or patriarchs. The 
opinion that the supremacy of the Roman pontiff is a doctrine of re- 
ligion does not appear at this period to have entered into the mind of a 
single individual, though Leo pretended to be paramount to the metro- 
politan of Constantinople, as it was called the younger Rome and its see 
was not of apostolical foundation. I cannot but suspect that some ob- 
servations on the conduct and pretensions of Leo at this period may have 
led to the suppression of the MS. of Priscus in the library of the Vatican. 



AND HIS PREDECESSORS. 509 

to the many whom he had subdued. The letters how- 
ever of Leo, which are extant, upon various subjects 
chiefly connected with church discipline, seem to testify 
a right-judging and upright mind, and render it very 
improbable that he should have debased himself and the 
government which he then represented by such mean 
and contemptible adulation. Whether he addressed the 
mighty Hun in the language of abject submission, or 
strove to conciliate him by a more rational and dignified 
appeal, he was completely successful in obtaining the 
object of his mission. The king is said to have stood 
silent and astonished, moved by veneration at the ap- 
pearance, and affected by the tears, of the pontiff; and, 
when he was afterwards questioned by his vassals, why 
he had conceded so much to the entreaties of Leo, to 
have answered that he did not reverence him, but had 
seen another man in sacerdotal raiment, more august in 
form and venerable from his grey hairs, who held a 
drawn sword, * and threatened him with instant death, 
unless he granted every thing that Leo demanded. The 
vision was reputed to be that of + St. Peter, and according 
to Nicolas Olaus he saw two figures, who were reported 
to have been St. Paul and St. Peter. This celebrated 
anecdote, the memory of which is said to have been 
made illustrious by the works of Raphael and Algarve, is 
to be looked upon as an ecclesiastical fiction, but Attila 
seems to have been alarmed by a superstitious dread of 
the fate which overtook Alaric speedily after the subju- 
gation of Rome. A joke J is related as having been 
prevalent against Attila amongst his followers, founded 

* Sigonius, Subellicus, Callimachus. t Sigebert chron. t Sigonius. 






510 ATTILA, 

on the names of the two bishops Lupus and Leo, that as 
in Gaul he had yielded to the wolf, he now gave way 
before the lion. He had probably more weighty reasons 
for his retreat, than the venerable aspect of the lion, the 
visions of the apostles, or the fate of the Gothic con- 
queror. His army was enervated by the sack of the 
Italian towns, and a grievous # pestilence had thinned its 
ranks ; the devastation of the country had rendered it 
difficult to obtain subsistence, and his troops were suffer- 
ing from famine, as well as disease ; the recollection of 
Radagais, who had not long before in the plenitude of 
his power been starved into unconditional surrender on 
the heights of Fsesulae, may have furnished him with 
rational grounds of apprehension, while the army of 
Aetius,f fresh and unbroken, was hanging upon his 
skirts, intercepting his foragers, cutting off his stragglers, 
and watching opportunity to inflict some more important 

* Idatius. Idatius speaks of the aids of Marcian as having contri- 
buted to occasion his retreat. If he meant to say that Marcian had 
actually made a diversion by entering Pannonia, it is extremely impro- 
bable ; for no war is mentioned as having taken place between Attila 
and Marcian, and no remonstrance as having been made on account of 
any such inroad ; but it is very likely that Marcian was aiming, and 
that he may have advanced his forces so as to threaten Attila's fortifi- 
cations at Hunnium (Udine) and cause some uneasiness lest he should 
interpose between the army of the Hunnish king and his dominions. It 
is evident from the account of Priscus that Marcian had committed no 
overt act, for Attila's cause of complaint against him immediately after- 
wards was confined to the nonpayment of tribute. See Priscus, p. 49. 

t Sigonius states that the whole country between the Alps and the 
Apennines was laid waste; flight, depopulation, slaughter, slavery, 
fire, and despair being on all sides, the avarice, cruelty, and lust of the 
barbarians making no distinction of rank, sex, or age; but that Aetius 
had a very great army of Romans and barbarian mercenaries, so that he 
might have encountered Attila on equal terms, and that the forces of 



AND HIS PREDECESSORS. 511 

injury. An ample donation of gold, according to the base 
practice of that period, was probably added to the causes 
which induced Attila to forego for that season at least 
the attack of Rome ; and he consented to withdraw his 
forces, threatening however that he would return in the 
ensuing spring to inflict the most determined vengeance 
on the Romans, unless Honoria and her portion of the 
imperial inheritance were conceded to him. Cassiodorius 
and Carpileo probably transacted the details of the treaty 
after the first audience of the ambassadors. Theodoric 
king of Italy,* in a rescript to the Roman senate, an- 
nouncing the elevation of M. A. Cassiodorius to the 



Attila were exhausted by famine and disease ; that Attila was advanc- 
ing along the iEmilian road, that is from Aquileia to Rimini, and Aetius 
had moved forwards to the borders of Cisalpine Gaul, that is to Rimini 
and the Rubicon to give him battle. It does not appear that Attila 
advanced further south than Ravenna, from whence he perhaps declined 
to Reggio and Modena instead of advancing to encounter Aetius. St. 
Geminianus bishop of Mutina is stated to have declared that he would 
not resist the scourge of God, (See Acta S. S.) though it is also said that 
the town was hid from the Huns by a thick fog, in consequence of his 
prayers. I apprehend the truth to be that Attila finding his army not 
in a state to risk a pitched battle with Aetius on the banks of the 
Rubicon, fell back to Governolo behind the Po, and paused there to 
deliberate on his further proceedings and reunite his forces, and that he 
was rejoiced at having an opportunity of conceding to the submissive 
mission of Valentinian that which circumstances in fact rendered neces- 
sary. The forces of Zowar, which are said to have returned from 
Apulia just before the arrival of the embassy, were probably light troops 
who had been sent forward along the iEmilian road near the coast, and 
had fallen back on the advance of Aetius. Their having penetrated as 
far as Apulia and Calabria is scarcely credible, unless they had been 
despatched in boats from Ravenna to make a descent on the coast to 
the south of Rome, but the campaign did not last long enough to ren- 
der such operations likely. 

* Cass. Variar. 1. 1. ep. 4. Senatui urbis Romae Theodoricus rex. 



512 ATTILA, 

patriciate, asserts that the conclusion of the peace was 
mainly attributable to the skill and intrepidity of the 
elder Cassiodorius his father. He speaks in high praise 
of him, saying that his mental qualities were equal to 
those of Aetius, and that on account of his wisdom and 
glorious exertions on behalf of the state he was associated 
with that distinguished commander, and was therefore 
deputed with Carpileo son of Aetius to " Attila the 
armipotent." " Fearless (continues Theodoric) he be- 
" held the man who was dreaded by the empire ; con- 
" fiding in the truth he disregarded his terrible and 
" threatening countenance. He found the king haughty, 
" but left him appeased ; and so completely overthrew 
" his calumnious allegations by the force of truth, that 
" he disposed him to seek conciliation, whose interest 
" was not to be at peace with a state so wealthy. By 
■" his firmness he raised up the timid party, nor could 
" those be looked upon as faint-hearted, who were de- 
" fended by such fearless negociators. He returned 
" with a treaty, which the nation had despaired of ob- 
" taming." Theodoric bears no mean testimony to the 
magnanimity of Attila, when he asserts, that the truth 
spoken by a foe could disarm him in the full career of 
his hostility. Cassiodorius, to whom we are indebted for 
the preservation of Theodoric's account of his father's 
distinguished ability in conducting the negociation, says 
in his chronicle # that pope Leo made the peace under 
the direction of Valentinian. 

§ 65. Whether or not Honoria was afterwards delivered 
up to Attila is a point that admits of doubt, though 

* Cum quo a Valentiniano imperatore Papa Leo directus pacem fecit. 



AND HIS PREDECESSORS. 513 

no mention of her having been given to him is made by 
the Roman writers ; but the * Hungarians speak of a 
son Chaba borne to him by Honoria after his death. 
Nothing is recorded concerning her after this period, and 
she most probably died in prison, unless, having been 
sent to him, she finished her life amongst the heathens. 
She was not amongst the ladies of the imperial family 
whom Genseric afterwards carried off from the sack of 
Rome to Africa. The steps which had been taken on 
the discovery of the correspondence of Honoria with 
Attila are buried in oblivion with the lost work of 
Priscus, but the expression of Jornandes that Attila 
asserted that Honoria had done (or, strictly, admitted) 
nothing which should disqualify her from marrying him, 
induces me to believe that she was immediately com- 
pelled to undergo a mock ceremony of marriage, pro- 
bably never consummated, for the purpose of preventing 
her union with him. A medal has been preserved, and 
engraved by Angeloni, in which she bears the title of 
Augusta, which was perhaps struck at this time to appease 
and gratify Attila, for at no other time was Valentinian 
likely to have permitted it. After the pacification had 
been concluded between Attila and the Roman legates, 
he fell back with his whole force towards Pannonia. At 
the passage of the Lycus or Lech, a fanatical f woman, 
perhaps one of the prophetesses who are described as 
always accompanying the Hunnish armies, is said to have 
suddenly crossed his path, and, seizing hold of the bridle 
of his horse, to have three times cried out, Back, Attila ! 



* Tliurocz Chron. 1. c. 23. He also mentions Aladarius a son of 
Attila by Krymheyleh or Crim-Hilda. t Callimaehus Experiens. 

2 L 



514 ATTILA, 

but notwithstanding that warning he continued his course 
to his Hungarian capital, from whence he was never 
again to take the field against the Romans. 

§66. Having returned home, * Attila sent an embassy 
to Marcian to demand tribute, whereupon Apollonius 
was despatched across the Danube from Constantinople to 
appease his anger. It does not appear whether he 
pacified him by gifts at that time, but money was pro- 
bably paid. Jornandesf states that Attila proceeded 
afterwards by a different route from that which he had 
before followed to re-enter Gaul, and again attempt the 
reduction of the Alans on the Loire ; but that Toris- 
mond king of the Visigoths was prepared to assist them, 
and defeated him once more on the same Catalaunian 
plain, forcing him to return home ingloriously. Not- 
withstanding the assertion of that writer, who lived in 
the century next after the events he related, the con- 
current testimony of the Roman Chronicles, and the 
date of Attila's death make it certain that the story was 
as false, as it is improbable. It must have originated in 
the circumstance of king Torismond having succeeded 
to the throne during the victory of Chalons, which might 
therefore have been truly said to have been gained first 
by Theodoric, and after his fall by Torismond ; and an 
interval of time being erroneously placed between the 
exploits of the father and the son, the same events were 
supposed to have occurred again at a later period. 
Gregory of Tours however relates that the Alans them- 
selves were defeated by Torismond not long before his 



* Priscus, p. 49. 
t De bell. Get. c. 43. The account of Jornandes is followed by Sige- 
bert. 



AND HIS PREDECESSORS. 



515 



death, which took place in this same * year, but he 
makes no mention of any Huns in Gaul at that period. 

§ 67. If the life of the Hunnish conqueror had been 
prolonged many years beyond this time, it appears as 
certain, as any event that human foresight can anticipate 
by the consideration of existing things and past experi- 
ence, that the Roman empires of the West and East must 
erelong have been reduced to unconditional surrender 
of their authority, and that, without the intervention of 
some great and unexpected deliverance, Christianity, 
w 7 hich had so lately become the law of the empire, must 
have been nearly stifled in Europe ; but it pleased the 
Divine wisdom to cut short the life of Attila at the very 
moment, when the predictions concerning the termina- 
tion of the Roman power, at the expiration of its 1200th 
year, seemed about to be accomplished by his elevation 
to the thrones of both Caesars, and the revelation of 
Antichrist was expected in his person ; and with his life 
the mighty fabric which he had consolidated was imme- 
diately dissolved. The innumerable f offspring of his 
multifarious concubinage claimed participation in the 
inheritance of his pow r er. They did not however succeed 
in wresting it from the children of Creca, who were his 
lawful successors, but the great warriors amongst his 

* Prosper Aquit. A. D. 453. The American novelist Cooper, speaks 
of an old fortification called the Heidenmaur near Limberg, which 
tradition states to have been occupied by Attila in the season preceding 
his invasion of Italy : an evident inaccuracy, though its occupation 
might have preceded the campaign in Gaul, not however by himself, 
but by some of his tributaries; and it may have been retained as an 
advanced post after he had withdrawn his forces from Gaul, even to the 
time of his death. 

t Jornandcs states that from the abundance of his licentiousness, his 
progeny were almost a people. 

2 L 2 



516 ATTILA, 

vassal kings were too valiant and preponderant to be 
long constrained by influence less authoritative, than 
that of Attila. The Gothic kings threw off the yoke ; 
and Gepidian Arderic, who had been the faithful coun- 
sellor and companion of Attila, and the bulwark of his 
authority, struck the fatal blow to that of the young 
princes, whom he defeated in a great battle near the 
river Netad, which is not identified, and took possession 
of all Dacia. From that moment the ascendancy of the 
Huns was utterly extinguished. Ellac, the eldest of 
the princes fell in the battle, and Dengisich and Imach 
fled to the shores of the Euxine. In the following year 
(455) Dengisich having the chief power amongst the 
Huns, in concert with Irnach, attacked the Goths as re- 
fractory vassals, but they were utterly defeated by Wala- 
mir, and a small remnant escaped to the strong defences 
called Hunniwar in Pannonia. Irnach # fled into Asia 
to a part of the Hunnish dominions called lesser Scythia, 
and his subsequent career was too insignificant to have 
been recorded. Odoacer, f who was destined to put an 
end to the Roman empire in the West a few years after, 
was a person of no great distinction in the Hunnish court 
at the time of the death of Attila ; and Theodoric, soon 
afterwards king of Italy, was born from a concubine of 
one of the Gothic kings two years after his death nearly on 
the day of the victory gained over the Huns by Walamir. 
The account of a cotemporary J writer preserved by 
Photius, states that he was the son of Walamir, who had 
prognosticated the future greatness of his son, by the 
emission of sparks from his body, a phenomenon by 

* Jornundes bell. Get. c. 50. 
t The Greeks accented his name on the second o, and his name was 
probably Odoacr. $ Damasc. in vit. Isidori. Phot. cod. 242. 



AND HIS PREDECESSORS. 517 

which the horse of Tiberius and the ass of Severus, 
(probably Libius Severus) are said by him to have 
presignated the elevation of their riders. Malchus and 
some other writers call him the son of Theodemir. 
Gibbon has followed the latter, and does not appear to 
have known the doubt which exists on the subject. A 
coin of Theodoric having the head of Zeno on the re- 
verse, appears to testify, that, like Odoacer, he held the 
crown of Italy in nominal subordination at least to the 
Eastern emperor. 

§ 68. The particulars of the death of Attila are involved 
in considerable obscurity. The chronicler Marcellinus, 
who wrote in the next century, asserts that he was 
murdered by a concubine, suborned by the patrician 
Aetius, and indeed it is difficult to believe that any great 
act of political villainy should have been committed at 
that time without the privity of that unprincipled states- 
man. Jornandes cites from the lost history of Priscus, 
that Attila, according to the custom of his nation, (pro- 
bably meaning only the privilege of its kings) having 
added to the innumerable multitude of his wives a very 
beautiful girl called Hildico, which is merely another 
form of the name Hilda, after indulging in great hilarity 
at the wedding, lay upon his back oppressed with wine 
and sleep; that a redundancy of blood, which gushed 
from his nose, having found a passage into his throat, 
put an end to his life by suffocation ; and that inebriety 
thus terminated all his glories. This story was doubtless 
promulgated by his murderers, but is highly improbable, 
when we consider the great abstemiousness of Attila, 
recorded by Priscus ; and, as marriage was to him a 
circumstance of very frequent occurrence, it is not likely 
that he should have departed from his usual habit> of 



518 ATTILA, 

sobriety on this occasion. Sigonius and Callimachus 
state the name of the lady to have been Hildico, but 
Olaus, Thurocz, and Bonfinius, call her Mycolth, 
daughter of the king of Bactria, and Ritius varies that 
name to Muzoth, while Diaconus, the Alexandrine 
Chronicle, and Johannes Malalas simply call her a 
Hunnish * prostitute, by which opprobrious term the 
Christian writers would probably have styled any of 
his subsidiary wives. Johannes Malalas also says that 
the girl was suspected of having murdered him, but that 
others assert he was murdered by his sword-bearer at 
the instigation of Aetius. He is said to have struck f his 
foot painfully, as he entered the bridal chamber, on 
which, addressing himself, as it was supposed, to the 
angel of death, he exclaimed, " If it be time, I come ;" 
and on the night of his marriage his favourite horse died 
suddenly. The most ancient legends of Germany and 
Scandinavia are filled with the adventures of Attila, and 
of the ever memorable Hilda (the Hildico of Jornandes) 
in a variety of forms, and with much confusion of cir- 
cumstances and appellations. The celebrated old German 
lay of the Nibelungians treats of this matter. A great 
part of the poetical Edda of the Scandinavians is oc- 
cupied with the detail of these transactions, and the old 
sagas called Volsunga, Wilkina, and Nifflunga Saga, are 

* Met'Ounnas pallakidos katheudon. Job. Mai. — Aventinus calls her 
Hildgunda daughter of Erric, a petty king of the Francs. The notion 
of her being a Franc princess arose from her connexion with the Bur- 
gundians ; the poem of Walther speaks of Hiltgund, daughter of Erric, 
king of Burgundy. 

+ Callimachus Experiens. — Nicolas Olaus and G. Pray, following him, 
have misunderstood the words of Calliniachus "novae sponsse cubiculum 
intrantis,'' of him entering the bride's chamber, and have stated that the 
bride tripped on entering his chamber, which makes the tale absurd. 



AND HIS PREDECESSORS. 519 

records of the same. A careful consideration of the old 
Scandinavian documents, together with the undeniable 
evidence of Priscus, that Attila ruled over the Northern 
islands, makes it pretty clear, that the Danes have no 
real history previous to the occupation of their territory 
by Attila, and that most of their ancient traditions are 
reminiscences of that mighty conqueror, (who was in 
some respects the Odin of the North, as he was also the 
Arthur of Great Britain) or at least blended with them. 
§ 69. In the Heltenbuch we read of the emperor 
Otnit, certainly meaning Attila, and attributing to him 
a name almost identical with Odin. Odin or Woden 
having been worshipped by the Scythian tribes in Asia, 
and probably being one with the sword-God, of whose 
type Attila had possessed himself, the name would 
be naturally bestowed upon Attila by those who ac- 
knowledged his divine title. An ancient medallion 
represents Attila with teraphim or a head upon his 
breast, and Odin was said to have preserved the head of 
Mimer cut off, which gave oracular responses. See 
Brynhilda quida 1. st. 14. Attila is named Sigurd in 
several Scandinavian legends ; Sigge is a name for Odin, 
and Sigtun his place of abode, all being connected with 
the word Sigr, victory. Sigi the son of Odin acquired 
dominion in France according to the prose Edda, and 
Volsunga saga says he was king of the Huns. The Edda 
states also that Sigi's brother Balldr, who fell by an act 
of fratricide, (meaning Bleda) ruled in Westphalia. 
Those statements actually designate Attila, who was 
looked upon as the son or incarnation of the sword-god, 
being the only Hun who ever had power in France. It 
must be borne in mind that, while the oldest N orthern 
legends connect Odin with the Huns, the existence of 



520 ATTILA, 

that nation was unknown in Europe till 78 years before 
the death of Attila. The Edda of Snorro (Goranson's 
ed. p. 34.) states that Hlidskialf was the throne of 
Odin, and in Atla quida st. 14. the same name is 
given to the tower or dwelling-place of Attila. That 
Valhall was the residence of Odin is universally known ; 
the abode of Attila bears that name in the Edda, 
Atla mal in Gr. st. 14. In the same Edda, in Sigurd, 
quid. Fafn. 3. st. 34, Hilda says that Attila com- 
pelled her to marry against her will ; and in Brynh. 
quid, she says that Odin condemned her to involuntary- 
wedlock. In Brynh. quid. 1. st. 14. and in Volospa it 
is said that Odin conversed with, and obtained responses 
from the head of Mimer cut off, but, in Wilkina saga 
c. 147, Sigurd, who is unquestionably Attila, kills 
Mimer. That Odin and his followers were Asiatics, or 
Asians, as they are styled in the Edda, perfectly accords 
with the origin of the Huns who had so lately entered 
Europe ; nor does there appear to be the slightest 
ground for the suggestion of the Danish historian Suhm, 
that Odin was a person driven out of Asia into the North 
of Europe by the conquests of Mithridates, except the 
antiquity which, without proof, he was desirous of giving 
to the events detailed in the Scandinavian records ; 
whereas it is most probable that no such individual 
bearing the name of Odin ever existed in the North of 
Europe, though that opinion may not be palatable to 
the Danish antiquarians. Attila is called in the Edda 
the son of Buddla, a name which seems closely connected 
with Buddha, the Asiatic title of the God Woden or Odin. 
Buddla is stated in Fundinn Noregur to have conquered 
Saxony and established himself there, but not to have 
been himself a Saxon. The exclamation attributed to 



AND HIS PREDECESSORS. 521 

Attila, (see above, p. 459) " Lo, I am the hammer 
of the world," has evident reference to the Scandina- 
vian hammer of the God Thor ; and, as he is identified 
with the war-god, his sister and wife Hilda is the 
war-goddess, of the Northern nations. According to 
Olaus Magnus (3. c. 10.) Hother (the same who 
according to the oldest mythology of the North killed 
Balder son of Odin, from jealousy, on account of a 
woman), was set on the throne of Sweden by his bro- 
ther Attila; and (c. 12.) Attila succeeded Hothinus, 
that is Odin. This Hother, according to Vegtam's quida 
(known as the Descent of Odin), in the verse Edda, was 
brother to Balder, as he is above stated to have been 
brother to Attila. Hother himself according to Veg- 
tam's quida was killed by Ali, (sometimes called Vali) 
who in the old Swedish version is Atle, that is Attila, 
and in the Latin Atlas, another form of his name, son of 
Odin and Rinda ; therefore all the three were brothers. 
I entertain no doubt that this famous tale of fratricide 
refers to the known murder of Bleda by his brother Attila, 
with a duplication of the act of fratricide, like that which 
occurs in all the tales of the murder of Attila himself; the 
cause assigned for the first act of fratricide being jealousy, 
for the second, revenge. Olaus Magnus states in his 
appendix, (p. 825-6.) that Attila hated the Danes so, that 
he set a dog to reign over them, (which has some refer- 
ence to the account in the Provencal romance that Attila 
was himself begotten by a dog, and had canine features) 
and that he was betrayed by his wife, who robbed him, 
and fled from him, and conspired with his son against 
him. In p. 827, we find another Attila king of Sweden, 
who also conquers the Danes, and dies by murder. 
Olaus compiled his work from vernacular legends, and 



522 ATTILA, 

in these fables we cannot fail to recognize the reminis- 
cences of the mighty Hun, and his close connexion with 
Odin, and the earliest mythology and story of the north; 
and they are confirmatory of the fact asserted by Priscus, 
that he did rule over the maritime countries of the 
Baltic. But the Scandinavian mythology not only begins 
with Attila, either doing the same things that are 
averred concerning Odin, or called his son, but it also 
ends with him ; for the prose Edda concludes with 
stating that this Ali, Atle, or Attila (who is stated in 
c. 15. to be the son of Odin, powerful in military valour, 
and in archery, which was the special weapon of the 
Huns), is to survive with Vidar the God of silence, after 
the destruction of all the other Gods, and reiyn as before 
upon Ida; that is, that Attila was expected to come 
again in power, as appears by so many accounts of him 
both under his own name and the romantic name of 
Arthur. He is the son of Odin, taken as the sword-god 
or spirit of war and victory ; he is Odin himself, looking 
to his achievements upon earth. The strange tale of the 
deception of the Jews in Crete in the reign of Attila, 
by a person pretending to come in the power of Moses 
as he did, throws some light on the assertion that Ali or 
Attila was ultimately to reign on Ida, the Cretan moun- 
tain, which was a type of that in Asia. 

§ 70. In the Scandinavian legends the catastrophe of 
Attila's life is told and repeated under different names 
with some variation. In the first place he appears as 
the son of Sigmund, possessing a celebrated sword called 
Gram, and a wonderful grey horse # Grana, under the 



* The name Grana was perhaps derived from his grey colour. Did 
the unexplained word gereenios, obsolete in the time of Horner, and 
always coupled with horseman Nestor, merely imply that he was grey, 



AND HIS PREDECESSORS. 523 

name Sigurd, a Hurmish king, superior to all his co- 
temporaries in martial prowess, the vanquisher of many 
kings in France, sojourning for some time with the Bur- 
gundian monarch, betrothed to and lying with Hilda, 
surnamed Bryn-hilda, the sister of king Attila, fraudu- 
lently giving her up to Gunnar or Gunther, prince of 
Burgundy, and espousing the daughter of Hilda sur- 
named Grim or Chrim- Hilda, and murdered at the in- 
stigation of the revengeful woman he had forsaken by 
one of the Burgundian (otherwise called Nibelungian) 
princes, but not before he had slain one of his assailants, 
and after his death she burns herself, together with 
much wealth and many of her slaves. He next appears 
in the same legends as Attila (Atli), son of Buddla, a 
king victorious over the Saxons near the Rhine, espous- 
ing Hilda, surnamed Grim or Chrim-Hilda, the widow 
of Sigurd, and having not only the same wife, but the 
same sword Gram and horse Grana, and his wife excites 
another Burgundian prince to murder him, having pre- 
viously served up to him at supper her own children by 
him, after which she attempts to destroy herself. Then 
she is conveyed to the court of another king who had 
married her daughter Hilda, called S van- Hilda, where 
another catastrophe takes place, a child of the same 
name as before, Erpur, is killed, and she likewise orders 
a pile for the purpose of burning herself. The first half 
of the old German Nibelungen-lied relates the adven- 
tures of the person called Sig-urd by the Scandinavians, 



or that he rode grey Grana ? Bufil-tarn, near which the horse Grana is 
stated in Volunga saga to have been begotten by Sleipner, the horse of 
Odin, was perhaps the lake out of which Herodotus says (lib. 4. 5:2.) that 
the Hypanis flows (on the banks of which the Huns formerly dwelt), 
adding that it was famous for a wild breed of white horses. 



524 ATTILA, 

under the name Sig-fried, his marriage with Chrim- 
Hilda, and his murder by the revenge of Bryn-Hilda. 
The second part relates the marriage of the widow to 
Attila king of the Huns, her attempts to avenge the 
death of Sigfried on the Burgundian princes, and her 
destruction by Theodoric. It is strange that the Danish 
historian Suhm, although in his chronology he has made 
these events coincide exactly with the sera of Attila, 
appears never to have suspected, or did not choose to 
perceive, that the Attila mentioned in the Sagas and 
Edda was the renowned king of the Huns ; nor did it 
ever occur to him that Sigurd king of the Huns could 
be no other person. On the contrary, he supposes the 
Attila there mentioned to have been a petty king over 
some Huns settled in Groningen. That Attila, brother 
of Brynhilda and son of Buddla, was Attila king of the 
Huns is certified by the Nibelungen-lied and the copi- 
ous detail of his adventures in Wilkinga saga; and the 
Danish editors of the late edition of the tragic Edda are 
satisfied of that simple fact, though they see no further 
into the unravelling of their confused traditions concern- 
ing him. That Sigurd the Hunnish king of the Edda 
and Sagas, the Sigfried of the old German poem, was 
Attila, appears indisputably from the following con- 
siderations: — He had the same wife, the same sword, 
and the same horse ; he was king of the Huns, and the 
greatest warrior of his age ; he was engaged with the 
Burgundians, partly in alliance and partly in warfare ; 
he vanquished many princes on the French side of the 
Rhine : all which applies to Attila. He was exactly 
cotemporary with Attila, according to the chronology 
of those who did not suspect their identity. He was not 
only married to, but murdered by Hilda, as well as 



AND HIS PREDECESSORS. 525 

Attila. It is utterly impossible that such another king 
should have existed at the same period, and been en- 
gaged on the same theatre of action with similar success, 
and under like circumstances, without coming into colli- 
sion with him, and that no vestige of such a character 
should appear in the authentic histories of the times, 
still less could there have been such another Hunnish 
king at the same time. His identity with Attila is 
proved by his renown and achievements, as well as by 
the catastrophe of his life ; and in a still more striking 
manner by the assertion of Brynhilda in the Edda (Brot. 
af Brynh. Quid. 2. st. 7.), that, if Sigurd had lived a 
little longer, he tvould have obtained universal dominion. 
In Sinfiotla lok is found another form of the story of 
Attila. Sinnotl is the son of Sigmund the Volsungian ; 
he and Gunnar woo the same person, on which account 
he slays Gunnar, and in his turn is murdered by Borg- 
Hilda, said there to be sister to Gunnar. In Oddrunar 
Gratr there is another version of the tale. Gunnar is 
surprised in an intrigue with Oddruna, sister of Attila, 
whereupon Attila puts him to death in a cellar filled 
with vipers, and has the heart of his brother Hagen cut 
out. In Oddruna, sister of Attila, intriguing with Gun- 
nar, may be recognized, under another name, Bryn- 
hilda, sister of Attila, fraudulently married to him. In 
Atla mal and Atla quida, Attila is said to have decoyed 
the Burgundian princes to his court to avenge the death 
of their sister Brynhilda, who had burnt herself after 
they had killed Sigurd, to have cut out the heart of 
Hagen, and thrown Gunnar amongst the vipers, in con- 
sequence of which his wife, the sister of Gunnar, killed 
his children and himself, and tried to commit suicide. 
In the Nibelungen-lied, instead of being decoyed by 



526 ATTILA, 

Attila, they go treacherously, at the instigation of Hilda, 
to murder Attila, and are put to death as above stated. 
Volsunga saga treats fully of the history of Sigurd, and 
subsequently of Attila; and at the end thereof, as well 
as in Regner Lodbrok's saga, the name of Kraka is given 
to Aslauga, the daughter of Sigurd, which tallies with 
that of Kreka, the principal wife of Attila, recorded by 
Priscus. In Wilkina or Nifflunga saga, Attila appears 
under the name of Sigurd Swein, and the Burgundian 
father of Gunnar is called Alldrian instead of Giuka. 
After the death of Sigurd Swein his widow is married 
to Attila, who being disgusted with her atrocities, permits 
Theodoric to kill her with the sword in his presence, to 
prevent her, as he states, from murdering Attila; where- 
by Sigurd Swein is distinctly, identified with Sigurd Sig- 
mundson, and with Sigfried of the Nibelungen-lied, 
whose widow is killed in the same manner by Theodoric. 
Afterwards a younger Burgundian prince, Alldrian, son 
of Hagen, entices Attila into a cavern in a lonely moun- 
tain, where he discovers to him the amassed wealth of 
the Nibelungians and of Sigurd, and succeeds in block- 
ing him up in the cavern, and tells him to satiate himself 
with the riches he had desired. Alldrian then returns 
to Bryn-Hilda the widow of Gunnar, who had caused 
the death of Sigurd and receives him with high favour 
on account of his having slain Attila. (c. 382.) This 
account tallies with that of the enclosure of king Arthur 
in Mount iEtna (Gerv. Tilbur.), where he was supposed 
to be still living, and from whence he was expected to 
return and rule once more upon earth. In the same 
saga the affairs of king Arthur are mixed up with those 
of Attila, and in an earlier chapter Attila sends a mes- 
senger to woo Herka (perhaps the same name as the 



AND HIS PREDECESSORS. 5"27 

Kreka of Priscus, wife of Attila, and called Cerca * by 
his Latin translators) under the feigned name of Sigurd. 
In Ssemund's Edda (Sig. quid. 3. 4.), Sigurd is called 
the Southron, agreeing with the appellation of halls of 
the south given in another passage thereof to the resi- 
dence of Attila. The legend of Hedin is a confused 
inversion of the Attilane tragedy. The same enchan- 
tress Hilda is the occasion of bloodshed ; Hedin, a name 
nearly identical with Odin, representing Attila, and 
Hagen, his antagonist, bearing the same name as one of 
the Burgundian conspirators. The tale is an inversion 
of the conflict between Attila and the Burgundian 
princes. That it belongs to Hunnish history, and not 
merely to the Scandinavian population, is clear, because 
Saxo Grammaticus says that Hedin fought a battle 
which lasted three days with the king of the Huns. The 
ancient chronology of the Danes respecting the inhabit- 
ants of Scandinavia is in a great measure founded upon 
Fundinn Noregur or Norwegian origins, a genealogical 
work in the old Scandinavian tongue, evidently written 
in the reign of Harald Harfager, who first united all 
Norway under the dominion of an individual (in 888 
according to Suhm), for the purpose of shewing that 
through his female ancestors he was descended from all 
the great families of the North ; from Odin, through one 
line, from Buddla, the father of Attila and Brynhilda 
through another, from Sigurd through another, from 
Norr, Gorr, &c. The Danish historians have shewn 
much want of discernment in believing this fabrication. 
The falsehood of these genealogies, which were forgeries 



* It is well-known that Childeric is a guttural pronunciation of Ilil- 
deric, and Chlovis of Hlouis. 



528 ATTILA, 

of great political importance to Harald, may be at once 
demonstrated by the descent from Sigurd, whose death, 
if he be considered as Attila, took place in 453, and, 
taken as he is by the Danish historians, is placed a very 
few years earlier, that is just long enough before to give 
time for the last events of his life to be acted over again 
under the name of Attila. Yet the pedigree (Fund. 
Nor. # p. 1 1 ) gives, 1 . Sigurd ; 2. Aslauga, his daughter 
by Bryn-Hilda, married to Regner Lodbrok; 3. Sigurd 
the snake-eyed; 4. Aslauga, his daughter; 5. Sigurd 
the hart ; 6. Ragn- Hilda, mother of Harald Harfager ; 
allowing only five generations for the space of 435 years 
between the death of Sigurd, taken at the latest 
period, and the monarchy of Harald, which makes each 
person in the pedigree 87 years old at the time of the 
birth of the child that succeeds. Such an absurdity 
throws complete discredit upon the whole tissue of ge- 
nealogies, evidently a clumsy fabrication to reconcile 
the North to the usurpations of Harald, and it strikes at 
the root of the whole frame of ancient Danish story. In 
a note to a short poem at the end of Helga, I apolo- 
gised for a supposed confusion in my Icelandic transla- 
tions between Aslauga, the daughter of Sigurd Sig- 
mundson, surnamed Fafnisbana, who lived in the fifth 
century, and Aslauga, wife of Regner Lodbrok, daugh- 
ter of Sigurd Swein, asserted to have lived in the eighth. 
I now retract that apology, into which I was misled by 
the disingenuous chronology of Suhm. The Fundinn 
Noregur distinctly says that the wife of Regner was 
Aslauga, the child of Brynhilda daughter of Buddla, 
and of Sigurd Fafnisbana, who lived, by the assent of 

* Printed in Bibrners Nordiska kampa dater. 



AND HIS PREDECESSORS. 529 

all writers, in the fifth century, and who was no other 
than Attila ; and Nifflunga Saga, relating his death and 
the vengeance of Bryn- Hilda, calls the same person by 
the name of Sigurd Swein. The Danish historian, find- 
ing himself thwarted by the gross anachronism in the 
false pedigree of Harald, attempted to bolster it up by 
splitting the same individuals into separate persons in 
different centuries, ringing the changes on the names 
Sigurd and Aslauga ; to such a degree could nationality 
and a desire to uphold the truth and authenticity of 
Scandinavian legends warp the understanding, and even 
apparently the candour, of an antiquarian, whose disqui- 
sitions were too minute to allow a probability of his not 
having suspected the imposture. The story of Regner 
Lodbrok is a blending of the adventures of the grand- 
father of king Harald Harfager (a northern sea-rover, 
killed in the eighth or ninth century by Ella* in Northum- 
berland), with some of the celebrated Attilane reminis- 
cences concerning Hilda, Sigurd, and Aslauga, who may 
have been the younger Hilda; and consequently we 
readf that the sons of Regner, with a great army, pro- 
ceeded in his lifetime to Luneberg in Saxony, with 
the intention of marching against Rome, hut abandoned 
the expedition on further consideration, a passage 
from the life of Attila, ridiculously misapplied to the 
offspring of a Northern pirate. The name Regner 
appears to have been Hunnish, for Agathias mentions 
that Regnar, general of the Goths, who attempted to 

* According to Thoresby, Ella, from whom the tumulus called Alla's 
hill, or the Hoe-hill, near Ripon was named, was not killed till 8(>7. 
Schoning places the death of Regner, who was killed by Ella, in 8:24; 
Suhm in 7!)4. t Ragnar Lodbroks saga, c. 14. Bibraer N. K 1). 

■2 M 



530 ATTILA, 

assassinate Narses, was not a Goth, but of the tribe of 
Bittores, a Hunnish race Regner Lodbrok himself is 
stated to be the son of another Sigurd (Sigurd Ring) 
and another Hilda (Alf- Hilda), so incessantly are the 
changes rung upon these feigned names of the aera of 
Attila. It appears that the poetical Edda had been 
written long enough before the reign of Harald Har- 
fager for the particulars related in it to have obtained 
credence, and before the names Dane and Denmark 
were established in the north of Europe, (see note, 
p. 441) probably at the close of the sixth century. 

§ 71. It will be observed that, in all the various ver- 
sions of the catastrophe which cut short the life of this 
mighty potentate, a revengeful woman of the name of 
Hilda bears a conspicuous part ; that some false play, 
by which she was dishonoured, seems invariably to be 
the cause of her virulence, and that the Burgundian 
family are always mixed up in the transaction, with 
great confusion between an elder and a younger Hilda. 
Both Cassiodorius and Prosper Aquitanicus testify in 
their chronicles the fact that Gundicar or Gunnar, the 
Burgundian, was slain by the Huns not long after his 
treaty with Aetius, shewing thereby that the later 
legends have some foundation in reality. The result 
of these various relations, taking into consideration that 
Priscus states Attila to have married his daughter 
Eskam, seems to be, that he, as told of him under the 
name of Sigurd, had a daughter by his sister Hilda, who 
is sometimes called Bryn-hilda, sometimes Hilda i 
bryniu, or the mailed Hilda, described as a warlike 
woman and enchantress ; that he had betrothed himself 
to her, but not married her, and that he afterwards 



AND HIS PREDECESSORS. 531 

compelled her against her will to marry the prince of 
Burgundy ; that he subsequently in 448 espoused the 
younger Hilda, (sometimes called Chrim or Grim 
Hilda, sometimes Gudruna or divine enchantress, as 
the other Hilda is also called Oddruna or enchantress of 
the arrow-head) his daughter by his sister, (Bryn-hilda, 
sometimes also called Grimhilda) in consequence of 
which she, the elder Hilda, excited the Burgundian 
princes to attempt to slay him ; but that he put them 
to death, and was afterwards murdered by a younger 
prince of that nation at her instigation ; that the catas- 
trophe did not take place on the night of his marriage 
with Hilda, but at a later period and on the occa- 
sion of another wedding, though the previous union 
with Hilda was the cause of his murder. Coupling 
these particulars with the account of Priscus, that in 448 
he wedded his own daughter Eskam, of other historians 
that he died on the night of his wedding with Mycolth, 
and of others that Hilda was suspected of having mur- 
dered him, it seems not improbable that Eskam was the 
younger Hilda, his daughter by his sister whom he had 
compelled to marry the Burgundian, and through whose 
revenge his murder was effected, with the aid of one of 
the Burgundian princes, on the night of his marriage 
with Mycolth in 453; Gunnar, otherwise called Gun- 
ther or Gundicar, having been previously excited 
against him, and slain after an unsuccessful attempt 
upon his life. It is very probable, that A'etius was privy 
to the conspiracy, as Marcellinus has positively asserted. 
The Wilkina saga contains the detail of a variety of ex- 
ploits by Attila, his victory over Osantrix king of Den- 
mark, with his gigantic champions Aspilian and his 

2 M 2 



532 ATTILA, 

brothers, his conquest of Russia from Waldemar, and the 
defeat of Hermanric by his arms, some of which events 
may perhaps be founded in truth, but they are discre- 
dited by the anachronism of introducing as his coadjutor, 
Theodoric of Verona, meaning Theodoric afterwards 
king of Italy, who was not born till two years after the 
death of Attila ; but, in this and in various other rela- 
tions he has been confounded with an earlier Theodoric, 
or the actions of Theodemir the vassal of Attila have 
been attributed to Theodoric, who was either his son 
or his nephew. Hermanric the Ostrogoth had been 
probably dead before the birth of Attila, and the sup- 
posed victories over him, and the alleged cooperation of 
Theodoric, were perhaps connected with the fabulous 
account of Attila's great longevity ; but the age of 120 
years attributed to him by the Hungarian writers, being 
that of Moses, seems to have arisen out of the notion 
that he came in the spirit of Moses, and was in fact # 
alter Moses. 

§ 72. According to the statement of Priscus, as related 
by Jornandes, the attendants of Attila abstained from 
entering the bridal chamber for a considerable time, 
thinking that he was pleased to lie late ; but at length, 
after calling loudly in vain, having forced the door they 
found him dead, and the girl, whom he had espoused, 
dejected f and weeping under the covering of her veil. 
Thereupon, according to the customary manner of 
mourning the dead amongst his countrymen, they cica- 
trized their faces, in order, as the historian says, that he 

* See above § 24. 
t Callimachus says lying beside him, as if fearful of awaking him. 



AND HIS PREDECESSORS. 533 

might be bewailed by the blood of men, and not by the 
tears of women. A silken tent was pitched in the open 
plain, and there his body was borne and lay for some 
time in state ; while the most distinguished of the Hun- 
nish cavalry careered around him, in the manner custo- 
mary at the games or tournaments of the Roman circus, 
in which the horsemen used to be divided into four parties 
clothed with uniforms of different colours, and they 
chaunted during their evolutions his praise in funereal 
accents, saying, " Attila, the chief king of the Huns, son 
" of Mundiuc, lord of the bravest nations, endowed 
" with an extent of power unheard of before his time, 
" having alone possessed all the kingdoms of Scythia 
" and Germany, and terrified both empires of the Ro- 
" man city, having captured or trampled on their towns 
" and having consented to receive an annual tribute,' 
" being appeased by entreaties to spare those which were 
" not yet sacked, when he had brought all those things to 
" a prosperous conclusion, ended his life, not by hostile 
" violence or by the treachery of his own people, but in 
" the full enjoyment of the security of his nation, amidst 
" festivities, and without any sense of pain. Who would 
" not esteem such a termination of his life desirable !"* 
After the equestrian exercises had been performed, and 
the dirge, of which the above substance has been pre- 
served to us, had been chaunted, they buried him se- 
cretly. He had three several coffins or rather biers, 
the first decorated with gold, the second with silver, the 

* These words were translated from the Greek of Prisons into Latin 
by Jornandes; they appear in Sigonius and Calanus Dalmata with 
such variation as if they had translated them severally from the lost 

original. 






534 ATTILA, 

third with iron, signifying by those symbols that the 
three metals appertained to so powerful a king ; with 
evident reference to the prophetic monarchies * of Daniel, 
the gold representing the Babylonian, the silver that of 
the Medes, to both of which he pretended in the title 
he had assumed, and the iron both the Roman empire, 
and the deified sword by virtue of which he ruled. He 
was interred fat night, after which a vast heap of spoils 
was made over his tomb, or rather over his body ; and 
they buried with him arms of his enemies which had 
been taken in battle, trappings studded with gems, and 
the banners of various nations. After this ceremony, 
the Huns celebrated his funeral rites with profane feast- 
ing and wassail, and the supper is said to have been 
served up in J four courses, the first on plate of gold, 
the second of silver, the third of brass, the fourth of 
iron, including the third or brazen Macedonian king- 



* Daniel, c. 2. t Jornandes. Calanus says at twilight. 

X The words of Jornandes concerning the coffins or biers are, cujus 
fercula primum auro, secundum argento, tertium ferri rigore commu- 
niunt, significantes tali argumento potentissimo regi omnia hsec conve- 
nisse. Calanus, perhaps referring to the same passage from the lost 
Greek of Priscus, says, Coense fercula primo in vasis aureis, secundo in 
argenteis, tertio in sereis, quarto in ferreis delata sunt. It is to be ob- 
served that the word ferculum, used by the two writers in different 
senses, is of very doubtful import, as it means sometimes a bier or coffin, 
sometimes a tray, sometimes a standard, sometimes a course of dishes 
served at table, or even their contents. The Greek word of Priscus was 
probably <ptptrpov, which admits the same ambiguity, and perhaps Jor- 
nandes and Calanus have understood the same word in different senses, 
but it will be observed, that the account of Calanus includes the other 
metal of the prophetic monarchies, which represented the Greek or Ma- 
cedonian ; and it is scarcely probable that Jornandes should have 
omitted it, if he had had access to the same source of information. 



AND HIS PREDECESSORS. 535 

dom with the three others which had been before sig- 
nified ; and it is observable that the historians, who 
have recorded these remarkable facts, do not seem to 
have had any notion of their apparent mystical intention, 
and their ignorance of the secret meaning affords strong 
reason for believing their report. The slaves by whose 
labour the grave of the Hunnish monarch was excavated, 
were put to death as a sacrifice to his manes, and, as 
Jornandes states, to deter curiosity from prying into and 
pilfering the wealth which w T as interred with him ; but 
it is difficult to understand how the place of his inter- 
ment could be rendered secret, even by murdering the 
workmen, if the tomb was covered with the spoils of 
nations, and it is most probable that the spoils were all 
buried and laid over the site of the body, and not over 
the tomb externally. With like view to secresy and se- 
curity, the body of Alaric had been deposited under the 
bed of the river Busentinus. The Hungarian writers 
say that Attila was buried near Kaiazo or Cheveshusa 
(a Hunnish word of Teutonic origin, meaning Cheve's 
house) where the Hunnish kings Cheve, Cadica, and 
Balamber, were entombed. 

§ 73. The identity of Attila with the Arthur of ro- 
mance has been pointed out by the author of Nimrod, 
vol. 1. p. 465. It is by no means improbable, that, when 
the arms of Attila extended themselves successfully over 
the North of Europe, the Saxon sea-kings, whom he, 
being unprovided with a maritime force, could not re- 
duce under his dominion, may have removed to England 
in some measure to avoid his ascendancy ; and, although 
we have no reason to believe that Attila ever sent any 
military expedition into Great Britain, the Scandinavian 



536 ATTILA, 

legends say that his companion Theodoric sent Herbert 
his nephew thither to king Arthur, who can be demon- 
strated to be no other than Attila, to ask for the hand 
of his daughter Hilda in marriage, but there is a story 
of fraud wherever the nuptials of Hilda are mentioned, 
and Herbert in this account draws a frightful picture of 
Theodoric to disgust her, and marries her himself. It 
may be surmised, that, as it was natural for the Britons, 
who were sorely pressed by the Saxons, to apply to the 
great conqueror of Europe, he may have sent them as- 
surances of his good-will and intention of succouring 
them hereafter, and have initiated them in his Anti- 
christian pretensions and claim to universal monarchy. 
From such secret communications the Druidical free- 
masonry may have originated ; and Olaus Magnus, who 
styles Arthur king over Britain, Ireland, Scandinavia, 
Denmark, and the rest of Europe to the Palus Maeotis, 
which could not have been predicated of any man ex- 
cept Attila, mentions that he instituted certain families 
or societies of illustrious men, which seems actually to 
designate lodges of illuminati. The following extract 
from a MS. by the author of Nimrod, which he has 
kindly communicated, will preclude the necessity of my 
entering further into this part of the subject. It seem* 
to me clear that the Arthurian fable is a Druidical loca- 
tion of Attila, as head of the Antichristian power, in 
Great Britain. " This topic may be handled to better 
" satisfaction by shewing to what real man and actions 
" the unreal Arthur of Britain had reference, and why 
" mortals so widely removed from the era of the lower 
" Western empire, as those who seem to revive in his 
" person, have been raised up, like phantoms, to cross 



AND Tils PREDECESSORS. 537 

" our path in history. The Arthur of romance was king 
" in A.D. 452, and the siege •perlleux in the centre of 
" the round table, bore an inscription that in that year 
" the seat ought to be filled, and the quest of the Saint 
" Greal achieved; yet Arthur failed of doing either. 
" Bearing that date of romance in mind, we must ob- 
" serve that Arthur was armed with a sword brought 
" to him from heaven, in right of which he was (like 
" a second Orion) called Llaminawg, the sword-bearer. 
" The celestial sword was so interwoven with his life, 
" that, until it was flung into the water, he could not 
" depart from this world for his appointed sojourn in 
" Damalis or Avallon. It seems to have contained the 
" divine part of his nature. In Tyran le Blanc we 
" read of Arthur imprisoned in a silken cage, having 
" life, but void of knowledge and discernment, save that 
" he could answer all questions by gazing fixedly upon 
" the naked blade of his sword excalibar. When that 
" was taken from him, he no longer knew, perceived, 
" or remembered anything. That sword was his mind 
" and his memory. Ireland, the Hebrides, Iceland, 
" Scandinavia, Denmark, Germany and France, were 
" conquered by Arthur, according to the accounts given 
" in the Bruts and in Romance ; he prevailed over the 
" Roman empire of the West, and (as Leslie bishop of 
" Ross says) over that of the East also. Attila king of 
" the Huns claimed sovereignty over the Scythian and 
" Sarmatic nations in right of the sword of Mars, not a 
" weapon used by that God, but an idol of him, imme- 
" morially revered in Scythia, though seldom seen upon 
" earth, of which he boasted himself to be the possessor. 
u Most of the Northern nations seem to have been obe- 



538 ATTILA, 

" dient to his power, and both sections of Constantine's 
" empire were humbled by his arms into the payment 
" of tribute. Arthur is stated to have passed into Gaul, 
" and gained a great victory in Champagne over the 
" Roman general Lucius Tiberius, and was marching 
" on to attack the Roman emperor himself in Italy, 
46 (whom Geoffrey ap Arthur calls Leo) when the in- 
" trigues of Medrawd the Pict, and Guenever recalled 
" him home, and shortly after destroyed him. The 
" Hun fought a great battle in Champagne against the 
" general Flavius Aetius, and soon after marched 
" against Italy, where he was encountered by pope 
" Leo, and by agreement with him, (but for what pri- 
" vate reasons I leave for historians to enquire) returned 
" to his own country. This was in A.D. 452, the very 
" same year in which the Romantic Arthur should have 
" filled the siege perileux, but did not. A few months 
" completed the life of Attila, by means (as it has been 
" supposed) of an unfaithful wife and foreign or domes- 
" tic treason. It may be asked, is it possible, that two 
" celestial sword-bearers should have been thought, or 
" even feigned, to spring up, conquer Europe, success- 
" fully assail the Roman empire, return home, and 
" perish under circumstances so minutely similar, and a 
" perfect correspondence of date ? True it is that the 
" Brutic Arthur bears date considerably later than the 
" Romantic, but it is also true that the later date is 
" only a cryptographic expression or cypher to denote 
" the earlier one. Arthur, say the Bruts, withdrew to 
" Avallon in A.D. 542, which three figures are merely 
" an anagram of 452." — " Of Arthur the sword-bearer 
'* it is said that he disappeared mysteriously from the 



AND HIS PREDECESSORS. 539 

" earth, to which he was one day to return ; Niebelun- 
" gen-lied # speaks of the disappearance of the Hun, as 
" doubting whether he was swallowed up by the earth, 
fct concealed in the mountains, or carried off by the 
" Devil ; and a Norse saga describes him as being en- 
" closed alive in a hollow mountain, amidst accumulated 
" treasures." — " Alain Bouchard (Grand Chronique de 
" Bretagne, fol. 53) pretends that one Daniel Dremruz 
" or the Red-visaged, reigned in Little Britain from 
" 689 to 730, carried his arms into Germany, was elected 
" king of the Germans, and proceeded to Pavia, where 
" he married the daughter of the emperor Leo. He 
" returned to Armorica where he was the most power- 
" ful monarch of all the West. His title is equivalent 
" to Florid-faced (Gwrid ap Gwrid Glau) an Arthurian 
" title. He is said to have descended from the Earls of 
" Cornwall, Arthur's native province. Like Arthur he 
" had no real existence ; like Attila he ended his career 
" of conquest by an Italian expedition, but did not pe- 
" netrate beyond the north of Italy, during the reign of 
" an emperor Leo who did not exist at the time men- 
" tioned. The circumstances identify him with both 
" Arthur and Attila." — " In a great lake near Nantes 
" is an island called isleoVUn^ meaning Hun, in which 
" is a great stone with a hole in it, under which a giant 
" is said to sleep, who contended against Christianity, 
" represented in the person of St. Martin of Tours ; and 
" it is traditional that a virgin is hereafter to put her 
" arm through the hole and raise the stone, and resus- 



* The lines concerning the disappearance of Attila are omitted in the 
German translation, butthej stand at tin- end of the old Swabiaa poem. 



540 ATTILA, 

" citate the giant and convert him. Martin died before 
" the reign of Attila, but was uncle to St. Patric, his 
" cotemporary. The sleeping Hun is evidently Attila, 
" and the legend furnishes another proof of his anti- 
" christian character, and of his identity with Arthur, 
" abiding in, and expected to return from, the island 
" of Avallon." 

§ 74. As the early legends and mythology of the Ger- 
mans and Scandinavians are replete with reminiscences 
of Attila, and the Arthur of romance appears to be a 
mystical denomination of the same mighty conqueror, 
we may expect to find his adventures pervading the 
early literature of other parts of Europe ; and true it is 
that the exploits of this celebrated man have resounded 
in fable and in verse throughout the greater part of this 
quarter of the world. A fragment of a Latin poem 
found amongst the archives of Bavaria was published by 
Fischer, A.D. 1780, at Leipsic, from a MS. said to be of 
the 13th century, and in 1792 a continuation of the 
same from a MS. said to be of the 9th, found at Carls- 
rhue. The poem is supposed to have been written by a 
monk named Walther, and has been referred to the 
latter part of the sixth century. It is however clear to 
me, as stated at length in a note to § 59, p. 480, that 
the poem could not have been written before the latter 
part of the 9th, because it speaks of Thule as lying further 
west than either Spain or Ireland, and previous to the 
discovery of Iceland by the Norwegians, no land was 
known to exist to the west of Ireland and Spain ; and, 
although, in the line incaluit Pictorum sanguine Thule, 
Claudian may have intended the northern extremity of 
Scotland or the Hebrides, it is impossible that, before the 



AND HIS PREDECESSORS. 541 

discovery of Iceland in 861, at which time there was no 
vestige of the island having been ever inhabited, any 
man should have designated Thule as lying to the west 
of Ireland, Placing the date of this poem at the end of 
the 9th or beginning of the 10th century, it will still, I 
believe, be the first record of the misapplication of the 
name Thule to Iceland, which was unknown to the 
ancient Romans. The lines are — 

" Interea occiduas vergebat Phoebus in oras 
Ultima per notam signans vestigia Thilen, 
Quae cum Scotigenis post terga reliquit Hiberos.'' 

It makes no difference whether Hiberos is understood to 
mean Ireland or the Spanish peninsula, which before 
861 were the western limits of the known world. It is 
probably a lapse for Hibernos. In this poem Gibicho 
(meaning the Burgundian monarch, who is elsewhere 
called Giuka, the u being changed into a v or b) is repre- 
sented as king of the Francs near the Rhine. Hiltgund 
daughter of Herric king of Burgundy is betrothed to Wal- 
ter prince of Aquitain. Attila with the Huns, who are 
therein called indifferently Avars, having advanced from 
Hungary against France, Gibicho submits to pay tri- 
bute, and Attila returns carrying with him Hagen, Hilt- 
gund, and Walter, as hostages. On the death of Gibicho, 
his son Gunthar succeeding him refuses to pay ransom, 
and Hagen makes his escape to him. Walter successfully 
leads the Huns against them. Ospiru, wife of Attila, ad- 
vises her husband to attach Walter to his service by offer- 
ing him the choice of the daughter of any of his Panno- 
nian satraps in marriage, which Walter declines, pretend- 
ing the desire of leading a life of military activity. After 
obtaining further distinction at the head of Attila's forces, 



542 ATTILA, 

he arranges with Hiltgund to escape from Attila's court, 
and to rob Attila of his arms and treasure, and a horse 
to carry them, and she is specially charged to provide 
herself with fish-hooks, that he may catch fish for their 
support on the way. Arrived at the Rhine, he pays the 
ferryman with a fish he had previously caught, which 
being presently sold to king Gunthar's cook is recog- 
nized by him to be an outlandish fish, and, enquiry being 
made, Walter is discovered. Gunthar, together with 
Hagen and several other warriors, pursues Walter to take 
from him the treasures of Attila, and they attack him in 
a cavern in the Vosges, where he is reposing. Walter 
kills all the assailants, except the king, and Hagen, who 
had scrupled to attack him, but is at length prevailed 
upon by the entreaties of Gunthar to assist in his dis- 
comfiture. They retire to some distance, and attack 
Walter on the road after he has come forth to prosecute 
his journey with the damsel, and after a desperate con- 
flict, in which Walter loses a hand, Gunthar a foot, and 
Hagen an eye, they part and return to their several 
homes. Aventinus calls the bride, in whose chamber 
Attila died, Hiltgund daughter of Erric king of the 
Francs ; the identical Hilda or Hildico of Jornandes is 
therefore here meant. This old poem does not appear to 
contain a word of historical truth, but we recognize in 
it some of the persons who acted in the great drama that 
ended with the death of Attila, the circumstances being 
adapted to the honour of some Aquitanian prince, whom 
the author wished to celebrate, and who seems to be 
placed in Attila's shoes, with his treasures, his bride 
Hilda, his sword, and his horse. The barbarous name 
Ospiru, which I have not seen elsewhere, may perhaps 



AND HIS PREDECESSORS. 543 

have been that of some real wife of the Hunnish king. 
The poem is written in Latin of the dark ages, with great 
disregard to quantity, and with the use of such words as 
wantis for gauntlets (Fr. gaunts) of which, I believe, the 
earliest use is by Bede and Notger the monk of St. Gall 
in the 8th century. The editor thinks the poem may 
compete with the iEneid ; its readers will find nothing, 
but its antiquity, to recommend it. The first part con- 
sists of 1333, the two together of 1452, lines. 

§ 75. There are certain points in the Morgan te Mag- 
giore of Pulci, which appear to have been drawn from 
the fountain of the Attilane legends. Orlando is pos- 
sessor, like Attila, of a divine sword, after his death 
it is cast, like the sword of Arthur, into the water, and 
continues to float upon the surface, but dives when any 
one attempts to lay hold of it. Orlando espouses, like 
Attila, the sister of the prince or marquis of Burgundy; in 
his last confession he states his deep regret for ill-conduct 
towards her. Her Burgundian brother, though in amity 
with him, strikes Orlando on the head the severest blow 
he had ever received. The favourite horse of Orlando 
dies suddenly without cause, like that of Attila, imme- 
diately before his death ; and he also dies, like the Hun, 
from the bursting of a vessel and the blood gushing from 
his mouth and nostrils. In Ellis's English romances 
(3. p. 299) will be found the epitome of a romance which 
has also reference to the legends concerning the Hun ; 
and it has been since published complete in Early metri- 
cal tales, Laing, Edinb. 1826. It is that of Sir Eger, Sir 
Graham, and Sir Gray-steel. The two latter are personi- 
fications of the sword of Sigurd and Attila, called Gram, 
which is lengthened into Graham. Winliane vowed, like 



544 JVTTILA, 

Bryn-hilda, to marry none but the man who should win her 
from all rivals, valuing nothing in her suitors but prowess. 
Sir Eger, to approve himself worthy, went to the land of 
doubt to fight Sir Gray-steel, but like Gunnar, he was 
worsted and wounded. Sir Graham, his sworn friend in 
arms, advised him to go to bed and disguise his voice 
and personate him, while he proceeded to fight Sir Gray- 
steel in Sir Eger's armour, with a wonderful sword and a 
horse borrowed from the brother of Sir Eger, and he 
slew him, and brought back his helmet and shield. 
Winliane, believing Sir Eger to be the real conqueror, 
marries him, as Bryn-hilda had married Gunnar under 
like circumstances, and Sir Graham marries Lilias 
daughter of the Lord of Gallias. Winliane, afterwards 
discovering the fraud which had been practised upon 
her, and in despair at having shared the bed of a beaten 
champion, abjures his company for ever, and after the 
death of her and Sir Graham, Sir Eger consoles himself 
by marrying the widow of Sir Graham. In this romance 
the elements of the legend concerning Attila as Sigurd, 
and Gunnar, and the two Hildas, are plainly discernible, 
though mixed up with some variation of circumstances. 
In 1502 was published at Venice a romantic work called 
Attila flagellum Dei, and in 1550 Rocho of Rimini 
published a poem with the same title. They call Attila 
the son of a daughter of Osdrubald king of Hungary by 
a dog, and state that his features * were half canine. 

* Jornandes says that the Huns in general were frightfully black, but 
this must be taken with some allowance for the exaggeration of a super- 
stitious man, who seems to have believed that their ancestors had been 
actually engendered by demons, and that they were introduced into 
Europe by an especial artifice of the evil spirit. A person free from 



AND HIS PREDECESSORS. 545 

They treat of his Italian campaign, and chiefly of his 
contests with one Giano or Janus a petty king of Con- 
cordia, of his entering into Rimini disguised as a pilgrim, 
and his head being struck off" and sent to his army by 
Janus, who recognized his doglike features. His suc- 
cessor Panduachus repulses the Count of Este, and is 
afterwards routed and slain by Eradius. By a gross 
anachronism the mother of Attila is said to have been 
destined by her father to espouse the emperor Justinian. 
A manuscript said to have been written by Thomas of 
Aquileia secretary to the patriarch Nicetas at the time of 
the siege, is recorded as having been preserved amongst 
the archives of the princes of Este, and an amplified 
translation of it was made, as it is pretended, into Pro- 
vencal, by Nicola da Casola a Bolognese, for the use of 
Boniface of Este ; and the Provencal was again trans- 
lated into Italian and printed at Ferrara in 1568. The 
translator's name does not appear in the copy in the 
king's library. It is stated by Angelati (Bibl. dei vol- 
garizzatori, v. 4. p. 373) to be Alepi Fino. Brunet, vol. 
2. p. 134, says it was translated by J. Marco Barbieri 
a Modenese. Whether there ever existed a MS. by the 
secretary of Nicetas is very doubtful ; if there did, some 
brief notice by him may have served as a peg on which 
to hang a long tissue of fictions, but certainly it could 
have contained nothing like the romance which the sup- 
posed translator presented to the public. From this 
romance Pigna derived his two works relating to the 
princes of Este, in which the fabulous events of the 



such prejudices would probably have called their complexion sallow. 
The rumour of bis canine features and parentage is of the same c! 

•J X 



546 ATTILA, 

siege of Aquileia are detailed, and a variety of romantic 
personages introduced, Forestus prince of Este being the 
most formidable antagonist of the Hun. These pro- 
ductions, evidently intended as a compliment to the 
house of Este, Palladio, who wrote not long after their 
publication, justly called the ravings of an insane person, 
(deliramenta) considering that they were published as 
true history. Concerning the romantic exploits of 
Forestus, Chiabrera wrote three cantos in blank verse, 
published amongst his posthumous works, and he makes 
Attila fall by the hand of the prince of Este. The poem 
of Quinctianus, an officer who had served under Aetius 
and wrote in his praise, laudans A'etium vacansque 
Musae, as Sidonius tells us, is lost. It would probably 
have thrown some light on the affairs of Attila. Sidonius 
himself, the friend and correspondent of bishop Lupus 
who admitted Attila into the city of Troyes, unfor- 
tunately abandoned the idea he had conceived of writing 
his history. Raphael Volaterran, in his Catalogue of 
illustrious men, mentions a MS. of the eight books of 
Priscus, history of Attila, then existing in the Vatican ; 
but it is not forthcoming, and the Byzantine history of 
Priscus is also lost. He was a native of Panium in 
Thrace. We possess only some extracts preserved in 
the Excerpta de legationibus. The poem of Marullus 
in praise of Attila has also perished. Ccelius Calanus 
Juvencus dwelt in Dalmatia, where in 1197 he was 
bishop of the five churches. Some copies of Canisius 
(Promptuarium ecclesiasticum) contain his life of Attila. 
Felippo Callimacho, called from his learning Experiente, 
was a Tuscan of the noble family of Buonacosti, but took 
the fancy name of Callimachus. He established a sort 



AND HIS PREDECESSORS. 547 

of academy in concert with Pomponius Laetus ; but 
Pope Paul II., who occupied the see from 1464 to 1470, 
believing that it concealed a pernicious mystery, perse- 
cuted its members with rigour. He retired to Poland, 
where he was preceptor to the children of Casimir IV. 
He was accused of advising Casimir to get the Polish 
nobles slaughtered in a disastrous battle in Moldavia, 
and was forced to lie hid the rest of his days, and, after 
his death, it was found necessary to conceal his body. 
His life of Attila was published in 4to. in 1531, and in 
8vo. in 1541. Pomponius Laetus his associate affected 
paganism, kept the anniversary of the foundation of 
Rome as a festival, and erected an altar to Romulus. 
Nicholas Olaus was bishop of Strigonium, and published 
a life of Attila. The Enneads of Sabellicus, and the 
Decads of Bonfmius, which treat of the affairs of Attila, 
were published in the 16th century. The Hungarian 
collections are Rerum Hungaricarum Scriptores varii. 
Franc. 1600, and the Hungarian chronicles published by 
Belius in three volumes, and by Schwandterus in other 
three. I am only acquainted with Cardinal Desericius's 
large work on Hungarian origins through the quotations 
made by Pray, which are sufficiently ample and unim- 
portant to prevent my regretting that I could not obtain 
access to the book itself, which is not in England, and, 
as I understand, not in France. There are some con- 
tinental tracts relating to Attila which I have not seen, 
but I have no reason to believe they contain any thing 
material which is unknown to me from other sources. 
Whether the Latin MS. of John Brame of Thetford, in 
the library of Bene't College, Cambridge, translated, as ho 
states, for the benefit of a lady who neither understood 



548 ATTILA, 

Saxon nor French, relating the wars of Atling king of 
Attleburg in Norfolk and Rond king of Thetford, has any 
reference to the legends of Attila the Hun or not, I am 
unable to state ; not having seen either it, or the frag- 
ment of the same work unfinished in 27,000 French 
verses, of which the MS. was purchased at Mr. Heber's 
sale, as I understand, by Sir Thos. Phillips ; but I believe 
it has not. Amongst the works of taste relating to Attila 
there is a tragedy by Corneille, one of late date by Mr. 
Hippolite Bis, and one of outrageous absurdity in Ger- 
man by Werner who makes Pope Leo conduct Honoria 
to Attila's tent at night to facilitate their amours. There 
is a romance * in two volumes by Robineau, who was an 
agent of the French revolutionists in Brabant, published 
under the name of Beaunoir, an anagram of Robineau. 
The little French work called Conjuration contre Attila 
is drawn from the Cantoclarus's incorrect Latin version 
of Priscus, 

§ 76. It is much to be regretted that the particulars 
of the life of this conspicuous man have not been more 
perfectly preserved, but if we assume from what has 
been premised, that which I firmly believe, that the 
mythology and the early history of the North originates 
in Attila, that the Arthurian legends have like reference 
to him, and that the Antichristian expectations, which 
had centred in him, continued to be cherished in the 
mysticism of romances, giving a tinge to whatever lite- 
rature did not spring from monastic sources, we cannot 
fail to perceive how great was the depth and durability 



* The romance of Attila advertised by Mr. James (March, 1837) will 
doubt not exhibit a powerful imaginary picture of the mighty Hun. 



AND HIS PREDECESSORS. 549 

of his spiritual influence and machinations, as well as his 
political power; and we may estimate what would have 
been the grievous consequences, if his career had not 
been cut short before he had had time to complete the 
subjugation of Europe and consolidate his Antichristian 
empire. His character may be easily traced from his 
conduct and achievements. Simple and abstemious in 
his habits, he gave no cause to the humblest of his fol- 
lowers to look with an evil eye on his exaltation. He 
was hardy, strong, active, and distinguished in martial 
exercises ; silent and thoughtful in his hours of festivity ; 
his determinations were peremptory, their execution 
rapid and effectual. Superstition and terror extended 
his influence, but the happiness of his subjects, his kind- 
ness, justice, and success, gave strength to his authority. 
He afforded safety to all who were overshadowed by his 
power, while he threatened certain destruction to all 
who resisted his dominion, and unrelenting persecution 
to all who fled from it. The lamentable state of Europe, 
at the time of his accession, gives reason to conceive the 
delight, with which the industrious portion of the nations 
under his government must have hailed its protection ; 
while the rapidity of his conquests, and the belief that 
he acted under a divine delegation, ensured to him the 
enthusiastic confidence of his soldiers. Partial and 
corrupt administration of the laws, tyrannic and ruinous 
exactions, inroads of barbarous marauders, wavering and 
imbecile policy, had annihilated the security of every 
individual within the limits of the Roman empire ; and 
incessant strife, between the various nations who were 
pressing upon each other and upon the Romans for sub- 
sistence, had spread havoc and starvation without it.- 



550 ATTILA, 

confines over a large portion of Europe ; but, wherever 
the ascendancy of Attila was established, the scene of 
bloodshed was immediately removed beyond its bounda- 
ries ; the wealth, which he snatched by force of arms, 
or extorted by negociation, from his opponents, continued 
to flow into his territory, and its interior presented an 
unexampled scene of contentment and security. Attila 
was perhaps the mightiest of those, who have distinguished 
themselves for a few brief years on the theatre of earthly 
glory ; and, if he had not been cut short in the plenitude 
of his strength by an over-ruling Providence, we have 
every reason to believe that he must erelong have ob- 
tained the undisputed possession of Europe, and neither 
the Persians of Asia, nor the Vandals of Africa, could 
have offered any serious opposition to the indefinite ex- 
tension of his empire. But his personal influence was 
the magic girdle which held together the immense league 
that had been cemented under his authority, and the 
moment his commanding talents were removed by a 
sudden and unexpected death, the power, which had 
been a single-handed and resistless weapon in his grasp, 
appeared too mighty to be wielded by any person of 
inferior qualifications. The establishment of his govern- 
ment over the habitable world was inconsistent with the 
spread of Christianity, and the Almighty will, which had 
sent him as a scourge on the population of the Roman 
empire, permitted him not to complete the overthrow of 
true religion ; but annihilated by his decease the great 
fabric he had constructed, which was immediately dis- 
solved by internal conflict in the absence of his absolute 
and decisive authority. The mighty one was gathered 
to his fathers ; the power of the Huns, which had shed 



AND HIS PREDECESSORS. 551 

a baleful and meteorous gleam over the age in which he 
lived, was speedily obscured; their generation was lost, 
and their name extinguished; and the historian, after 
searching amongst the records of time for the imperfect 
relation of his achievements, is left to conjecture the 
city of his abode, the manner of his death, the place of 
his interment, and even the language that he spoke, and 
in which his decrees had been promulgated from the 
confines of China to the waters of the German ocean. 



THE END. 



ATTILA. 553 



The reference, mentioned in the note to page 244 as 
having been mislaid, is Torfsei Hist. Norveg. 1. 2. p. 1. 
c. 27. He states, that the Finns of Lapland worship cer- 
tain demons called by them Gan, and are therefore 
themselves called Ganfinns ; that those demons have 
the form of blue flies, and can raise any wind, but espe- 
cially that which prevailed at the time when each of 
them was born. The name clearly comes from the same 
root as the Oriental gin, and the Latin genius, and the 
superstition is connected with that which gave a winged 
personification to the winds proceeding from different 
points, as Boreas, Eurus, Zephyrus, Auster, Notus, 
Caurus, Iapyx, &c. — Gan, magic machination ; ganfluga, 
a magic fly. Bibrn Haldorson, Lex. Island. 

The following quotation, from Florus 1. 1. c. 1, con- 
cerning the consecration of Rome by the blood of Remus 
(see p. 158) should have been added to the note, p. 361. 
Prima certe victima fuit, munitionemque urbis novae 
sanguine suo consecravit. 

Greg. Turon. cit. (in p. 425) would more properly 
have been printed Greg. Turon. cont. cit. ; and in the 
following sentence, (continuation of Gregory of Tours) 
should be substituted for from Gregory of Tours. I had 
stated (p. 158) that Gregory lived in the preceding cen- 
tury, and I meant that the quotation was from the 
volume bearing his name, to which the continuation is 
appended. 



ERRATA. 

See p. 272 — Additional Errata. 

P. 8. v. 232. read At midnight spoken 

— 23. v. 59. for chrystal read crystal 

— 36. v. 459. for sate read sat 

— 81. note, for day read day of the news. 

— 111. note, 1. 14. for Rubise read Rudiae 

— 114. v. 263. for Zeucon read Zercon 

— 115. v. 282. read despatch'd 

— 121. v. 470. comma after sentineb 

— 199. v. 252 for Vindicative read Vindictive 

— 312. note, 1. 15. for silly read injudicious 

— 357. 1. 8. for Picrius read Pierius 

— 447. note, 1. 15. for have read have had. 



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